Theory of passionarity. Gumilev Lev Nikolaevich

For many centuries, people have been trying to find answers to questions: why are people so similar in many areas of life, but at the same time so different; what determines the formation of a specific personality; what is inherent in a person at the genetic level, and what appears under the influence of the environment and communication.

Many scientists in the process of their activity put forward hypotheses about the formation of man with his unique inner world. On the question of what is inherited and what is acquired in the course of life, Cesare Lombroso, Benedict Augustin Morel, Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich and many other specialists put forward their ideas. Naturally, each of them proved his hypotheses based on professional practice, observations, and experiments.

Lev Gumilyov is known for putting forward a hypothesis about the structure and mechanisms of the development of ethnogenesis and passionarity as an important component of it. What is the difference between this hypothesis and modern scientific theories?

The background of the emergence of a new opinion on the nature of ethnogenesis

As a child of two poets, who was raised by a grandmother and rejected society as the son of a “traitor to the motherland,” Lev Gumilyov could not ignore the question of why everything happens this way and not otherwise in his environment and whether other options for the development of a life scenario are possible. The thinker built his hypothesis on the analysis of historical and geographical factors of the emergence and development of ethnic groups.

According to Gumilyov’s theory, the formation and subsequent integrity of the ethnos provide the geochemical energies of the biosphere. Each people develops its own rules for interacting with the outside world. The main factor in the emergence of different nationalities is considered adaptation to the relief and nature of the area. With a light hand, Gumilyov’s passionarity is responsible for the fate of a particular person and the whole ethnic group. What is the meaning of this term?

What is passionarity

The origin of the word is Latin (passio - enduring, but also passion, affect). In the range of European languages, root words have some nuances. In Spain, pasion is interpreted in the same way as in Latin. In Italy, passione is passionate love. In France and Romania, passione is a description of sensual addictions. In England, passion is the designation of a flash of anger. In Poland, the term refers to rage. In Holland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, passion is a hobby.

The Russian equivalent of the Latin word is the old word passion. Many years ago, it had a different meaning than today (according to V.I. Dahl) - this is blasphemy, torment, emotional impulse for something, moral thirst, unaccountable attraction and unreasonable desire. According to the old Russian concepts, the passionarity of the nation was represented in the person of passions or sufferers.

However, many old words of the Russian language either went out of use or lost their former semantic load, and today “passion is a strong love, a strong sensual attraction (according to I. S. Ozhegov). There is a simplification of the meaning of the word. Therefore, Gumilev does not speak of passion, but of passionarity.

What is passionarity? The definition describes the general statement of V.I. Vernadsky on the heterogeneous distribution of biochemical energy in a long historical period. The results of the uneven distribution of energies result in passionarity (according to Gumilev). And the moments of the highest release of biochemical energy into space are designated as passionate tremors.

It is argued that passionarity is caused by micromutation at the gene level, but this fact is practically unprovable. And the point is not that the relevant studies were not conducted, but that the deviation of the gene set (in the form of a mutation) even by tenths of a percent of the norm causes severe pathology, and by 1-2% - a change in species (you can become a dolphin or crocodile).

Gumilyov’s statements about passionarity as a hereditary attribute are true insofar as he inherits the types of temperament and properties of the nervous system. But psychogenetics is engaged in similar studies, in which there are enough terms to describe such phenomena. Using research methods, scientists have proved that the notorious desire to "learn and learn new and unknown" is encoded in a specific group of genes and inherited. This fact is confirmed by laboratory studies, long-term observations and experiments.

Multiple Definitions of the Term

According to Gumilev, passionarity is “a characterological dominant, an irresistible inner desire (conscious or often unconscious) for activities aimed at the realization of a goal (often illusory)” (book “Geography of an ethnos in the historical period”). There are other definitions. Some psychologists claim that the author created a new psychodynamic theory of personality, but the “classical” typology of characters describes all the features attributed to the Gumilev passionaries only in a different classification.

The peculiarity of scientific knowledge, in contrast to hypothetical assumptions, is that it is provable, observable, repeatable under similar conditions, with its help it is possible to draw up an accurate scenario of future events. The theory of passionarity and ethnogenesis is an attempt to look at the history of peoples from a different point of observation (bypassing economic and political laws). Since it is known that only 50% of inherited characteristics are in a person, and the rest are due to the impact of society and the environment, Lev Gumilyov described the possible impact of the latter (the influence of landscapes and their energy saturation).

Gumilyov’s theory of passionarity is published in the book Ethnogenesis and the Earth’s Biosphere. This is a non-standard approach to studying the history and geography of ethnic groups and the laws of their development. However, it is not difficult to notice the so-called neo-Eurasianism. Eurasianism was a national postulate in the 1920s and 30s. Gumilyov’s theory of passionarity is based on the ideas of such famous Eurasians as Trubetskoy, Krasavin, Savitsky, Vernadsky. Lev Nikolaevich is the successor of many ideas of this culturological concept. This can also be seen in the description of small ethnic groups (closed and original), their religious and typological features, as well as the role of individuals with a special psyche in the historically tense moments of the development of the ethnic group.

Gumilev's views on the interaction of civilization and ethnic group

Lev Nikolaevich was one of those to whom the theory of progress was disgusting. It was in civilization that he saw signs of the destruction of ethnic systems, which, according to Gumilyov, leads to land degradation and environmental degradation of the environment. The main disastrous factor in this case is “unnatural migration” and the emergence of cities (“artificial landscapes”). It can be argued that this idea was borrowed and continued by some followers of Lev Nikolaevich from the concept of Werner Sombart.

The role of passionaries in the development of ethnic groups

Since the occurrence of passionarity among the world's population is affected by a “certain cosmic force”, the specific share of obtaining this attribute will be different. Gumilyov developed levels of passionarity to describe this feature. In total, there are 9 levels in the classification, which are located on a coordinate scale in the range of values ​​from -2 to 6. Conventionally, all levels are divided into three groups (classical division model):

• Passionaries are above the norm.
• Passionarity is normal.
• Passionaries are below normal.

How are the levels of passionarity according to Gumilyov (briefly) in the following groups:

1. In the group “below the norm” are representatives of humanity, related, according to Gumilyov, to a rating of -2 and -1 (subpassionary). These are people who do not show any activity activity aimed at changes, and those who are able to adapt to the landscape (respectively).
2. It is interesting that the "norm of passionarity" is located at around 0 (the average man). Representatives of this group are considered the most numerous and are described as “quiet” people, fully adapted to the surrounding landscape. It is noteworthy that Lev Nikolaevich does not bother himself in this case by citing examples of such personalities from history.
3. The “above normal” group is more diverse:

• Level 1 is characterized by the desire to achieve goals without risk to life.
• Level 2 (called “seeking luck with a risk to life”) is notable for a fair amount of adventurism and is characterized as a “gentleman of luck”.
• Level 3 (called the “breakdown phase”) is described by the desire for “eternal” ideals: beauty and knowledge. In this group, Gumilyov includes people of creative professions, scientists.
• Level 4 (denoted as “level of overheating, akmatic phase, transitional”) outlines the ability to strive for an “ideal” goal and achieve prevalence in society.
• Level 5 is distinguished by its ability to achieve the goal at all costs, except for its own life.
• Level 6 (called the “sacrificial” or “higher level”) is marked by a person’s ability to sacrifice themselves.

Gumilyov’s statement about the independence of his concept from the doctrine of temperament is rather contradictory. This fact is clearly visible when studying the above classification.

Coexistence of ethnic groups

In the issue of the interaction of ethnic groups, according to the theory of passionarity, the dimensions of interacting ethnic groups and complementarity (the emotional relationship of ethnic groups to each other) are of key importance. Such relationships are expressed in different ways of interaction:

1. Symbiosis - implies the relations of ethnic groups occupying their landscape, but interacting for various reasons. This form is considered optimal for the welfare of each ethnic group.
2. Ksenia - (a very rare form of interaction) implies the presence on the territory of the landscape of a large ethnic group of small representatives of another ethnic group, existing in isolation and not violating the system in which they are present.
3. Chimera - occurs in the case of a mixture of representatives of two superethnoses in the same landscape. Negative complementarity in this case leads to conflicts and the collapse of ethnic groups.

Stereotypes of behavior in the Gumilyov theory

An important component of the ethnos as a single organism is determined by the stereotype of the behavior of the representatives of the group. According to L. N. Gumilyov, this characteristic seems to be structurally ordered behavioral skills characteristic of a particular ethnic group. It is suggested that this factor belongs to the category of inherited (at the biological level). Four types of relationships are structurally distinguished:

• the relationship between the group and the individual;
• interpersonal relationships;
• relations of interethnic groups;
• relations of ethnos and intra-ethnic groups.

In stereotypes of behavior Gumilev also includes the rules of relations of an ethnic group to foreigners.

Classification of the stages of development of ethnic groups

According to the theory of Lev Nikolaevich, behavioral stereotypes undergo changes throughout the life of an ethnic group before its “aging” (state of homeostasis). There are nine stages (or developmental phases) of ethnogenesis:

1. A push or drift is the stage of the emergence of passionarity in an ethnic group, the appearance of representatives with a vivid characteristic.
2. The incubation period is the stage of accumulation of energy of passionarity with its manifestations captured in history.
3. Ascent is the stage of a boiling increase in passionarity with all the ensuing consequences (for example, the seizure of new territories).
4. The Akmatic phase is the stage of the highest flowering of passionarity in all spheres of the life of an ethnic group.
5. The breakdown is the stage of "satiety" and a sharp decrease in passionarity.
6. The inertial phase is the stage of prosperity of an ethnic group without manifestation of passionarity.
7. Obscuration is a stage in the development of an ethnos characterized by degradation.
8. Homeostasis is the stage of the existence of an ethnos in accordance with the surrounding landscape.
9. Agony is the stage of the disintegration of an ethnic group.

Ethnosphere classification

At the base of this pyramid are convection and consortia. Further, in increasing order, there are sub-ethnic groups, ethnic groups, and super-ethnic groups.

The origin and development of an ethnos, according to Gumilyov, begins with consortia and convection. The first is a group of people with a common historical past, and the second is a group with the same household and family patterns. The interaction of these groups and supports the unity of the ethnic group.

Critique of the theory of L. N. Gumilyov

The most compelling argument in favor of the pseudoscience of Gumilyov’s theory is the description and explanation of phenomena from the perspective of “patriotism” (scientific knowledge is free from “emotional” theories that are not based on a solid factual basis). This circumstance, as noted by critics, prevents the historian from seeing the essence of the occurring historical phenomena. According to Gumilyov himself, “emotions in science give rise to errors”, however, all the author’s works are filled with contradictions (this is due to the rejection of certain research methods in favor of “patriotism”).

The postulate of "the absence of a category of guilt and responsibility" in the development of ethnogenesis is also rightly disputed. Critics see it as a justification for any kind of aggression under the guise of “millstones of history” (urgent need). An illustration is the use of Gumilyov’s concept by radical Russian nationalists in order to justify their actions.

The Eurasian concept aimed to justify the Russian revolution (and all the consequences connected with it) without distraction to ethical assessments. The central idea was the integrity of Russia. And the methods and techniques of interaction with ethnic groups in neo-Eurasianism (Gumilev's theory) were attributed to the prevailing passionarity of the Russian people.

The concept has supporters and opponents, but one thing remains unchanged - the work never became a scientific work (that is why Gumilyov’s dissertation was not approved by the Higher Attestation Commission, since the commission has the same criteria for assessing scientific and pseudoscience). Unfortunately, the contradictions with which Gumilyov’s books are filled have not been eliminated, and there were no volunteers to engage in the “cutting” of this “diamond”.

However, this fact does not detract from the significance of the work done, framed in the concept of the Passionary theory of ethnogenesis of Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov.