Mikhail Sorin. Velikosvetskaya steppe

Velikosvetskaya steppe
Elsa Guchinova. Post-Soviet Elista: power, business and beauty. Essays on the socio-cultural anthropology of the Kalmyks. - St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2003

Mikhail Sorin

Publication date: February 16, 2004

Kremlin is the capital of the Great Steppe. And in each of its uluses a mirror was placed in front of him, where he could contemplate the eastern side of his nature. A group of akyns sits in front of each mirror and sings a song, folk music, words from the Baedeker. And now, from a group of mirrors, one appears before us, and from among the guides, the most invited one emerges. This time, the Kalmyk steppe obediently plays the role of an amalgam, and the speech of the native Elsa Guchinova opens with the word appropriate for the occasion - “anthropology”.

Research naturally develops under the heading “ethnicity.” However, the thirst for modernity, despised by the idle tourist, calls for other words. Power and business peacefully joined each other in the name, equipped, to give them a marketable appearance, with archaic beauty. The comma between the first ones speaks of their dense unity and similarity. The conjunction “and” before the last one hints at some kind of escort services. So from the first lines, the province, splashing with delicate juice, is buried in its own idyll. The author writes:

“It turned out that a source for a socio-cultural anthropologist can be not only the strictly documented story of a centenarian about what happened during that time, not only dusty archival materials, but also life itself, your own impressions and observations, stories of neighbors and girlfriends, lyrics from modern bands and Internet sites, memories of parents and photographs from a family album"

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The angle is seductive, but destroys distance.

On the cover, hypothetically dear to the Kalmyk's heart, there is a pandemonium of images: the monumental Ilyich, a Buddhist temple, a folk costume, a chess palace and the same annoying akyn - already a monument, perhaps a personification. The second preface, written by Guchieva herself, specifically states: “The material culture of the Kalmyks, for example, tools of production, clothing, housing, utensils, but not food, are a thing of the past; its elements can only be found in museum halls . ” What does modernity mean for Elista? As it turns out, only a change of kingdoms. This is exactly how the periods of power are depicted, from the fabulous times of “Dzhangar” up to the reign of party secretary Gorodovikov and the current leader Ilyumzhinov , determined, in the author’s opinion, primarily by the disposition of the first person.

In general, within minorities, concepts experience collapse; ethnography and nationalism, ethnography and political science become indistinguishable. Statements, the scientific rigor of which I know nothing about, turn out to be at the same time incorrect attacks. Guchieva writes:

"The natural Kalmyk phenotype is one of the most significant factors in fixing ethnic identity. If even the Tatars living in St. Petersburg consider it impossible to change their ethnic identification due to differences in physical appearance, then what can we say about the Kalmyks, who represent the classic Mongoloid racial type"

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According to the author, the Tatars, who served as an example, do not care in this case. The good Doctor Reznik, according to Guchieva, along with others from the Russian diaspora, helped the Kalmyks who came to America a lot. Meanwhile, the rich and close-knit Jewish community lives in isolation, and its new members receive extensive preferences compared to other newcomers.

These restrained passages still cannot be called fully thought out. There are unaccountable sayings in them. And whatever the reason for this, whether personal character, “national” or some deeply scientific truth that places itself above elementary politeness, the entertaining tone that makes Guchieva’s work, in the end, simply interesting and informative, is still inappropriate in university work. Which, perhaps, gives rise to the above-mentioned cheeky failures. As a result, the study reads like a political request to the center not to interfere in the affairs of the republic, accompanied by an explanation of the conditions and circumstances under which everything should remain the same for political strategists who want to assist the current authorities.

The mechanisms of identity are shown superficially, but are quite applicable to the Newtonian world of national politics. From each case - whether with food or custom - PR moves invisibly grow, compatible with the dryness of the soil and the straightness of the horizons. Since the work on compiling the Kalmyk thesaurus was carried out more or less conscientiously, the brochure could serve well those who are not as conciliatory towards Ilyumzhinov as the author. This book could also be useful to a businessman touring the republic or traveling to the USA and China, if he is aware in advance that he may meet representatives of the Kalmyk diaspora sharing his business field with him, and would like to pleasantly surprise and touch them with knowledge of their native land. culture.

The structure of the essay is quite biblical. The role of “being” is assigned to the preface (there are two of them). Then there is an “exodus” based on the vengeful historical memory of the repressed. In a part similar to Danilova’s book, Kalmyk emigrants settled on the Babylonian rivers. The description of Kalmyk business is somewhat similar to fragments of John’s “Revelation,” which tells about the golden age (people of capital conscientiously set out their “daily routine,” which is not much different from the life of entrepreneurs in other regions). The chapter on the gendered beauty of Kalmyk women will be reminiscent of the Song of Songs in its poeticism and liveliness, minus the truly oriental sweetness of the original source, but with the addition of comparative characteristics in relation to Japanese and French women (the author's choice). The final paragraph - “The Myth of the Leader and the National Idea” contains features of the Books of Kingdoms and the Gospels. The central figure is the highly respected FIDE President.

Apparently, this is the joint plan for general anthropological reviews. In fact, the myth about the leader is so effective that Guchieva once mentions: “As the father of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nikolai Ilyumzhinov wrote in his memoirs...” . Whether this is a real need for this particular material, due to the lack or insignificance of others, or a political excess, I cannot judge. Maintaining apparent objectivity, Guchieva explains that the Republic of Bumba did not emerge from Kalmykia. But, one way or another, the two most haunting figures in the book remain Ilyumzhinov the son and the people's poet of Kalmykia David Kugultinov, whose speeches opened or accompanied all significant republican events and changes.

The latter, a poet, is at least decent, but equipped with a certificate confirming his status as a folk poet, just like all the other Kalmyk poets mentioned in Guchieva’s work, namely Erejenov and Balakaev . Apparently, the phrase “people's poet” is an established kenning, meaning simultaneously “great,” “recognized,” and “ours.” This Homeric approach to the use of epithets, from the point of view of today, should be clarified. But I suspect that mentioning the address where these poets acquired this nickname may, in the eyes of the reader, diminish the weight of their opinions and statements cited.

In general, any text published in an atmosphere of aftertaste, formed from frequent doses of violence, involuntarily falls under the charm of clerical genres. It seems to be either a denunciation, or a statement, or a petition “to the name,” or a holiday address. Alas, mirrors also have hearts. And Guchieva’s book, undoubtedly talented in terms of narrative vividness and very interesting in detail (I would note the story of the Kalmyk tea party in different parts of the world), did not escape a common fate.

The author was unable to move a sufficient distance from the object of research and completely fell under the spell of the context. Thus, the historical component of Kalmyk identity, despite numerous modern examples, is depicted in an ancient synthetic way, indissoluble in its integral essence, although the work is given an analytical appearance. The spatial coordinates given in the essay are also contaminated with a fair amount of historicism. But they are found in the field of cultural geography. Guchieva reports: “For a long time, several sculptural portraits available in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista, depicted only three persons: V.I. Lenin, A.S. Pushkin and O.I. Gorodovikov . ” To this day, these X's, Y's and Z's create a mysterious impression of cultural volume in those happy and sad places.