Leonid Vasiliev is a well-known Russian historian, sociologist, religious scholar, orientalist who specialized in China. He led the historical research laboratory at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. In this article we will talk about his biography and main works.
Childhood and youth
Leonid Vasiliev was born in Moscow in 1930. His parents were Soviet intellectuals. In the 30s and 40s, I had to constantly move after the head of the family, who received appointments for senior positions in various enterprises.
During World War II, they were evacuated to Tashkent. Then they lived in Kharkov, where Leonid Vasiliev graduated from high school with a gold medal. After that, he came to Moscow to enter the university.
In 1947 he became a student in the history department of Moscow State University. At first, China was not at all interested in it, but soon in the USSR there was a demand for Sinologists. However, Leonid Sergeyevich Vasiliev immediately decided for himself that he would deal with ancient, not modern history.
Work at the institute
After high school he was assigned to graduate school of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1958, Vasiliev defended his thesis on community and agricultural relations in ancient China. In 1974, he became a doctor of historical sciences, presenting the work on the Yellow Civilization.
Moreover, since 1968, Leonid Vasiliev combined scientific work with teaching. He lectured at MGIMO, the Institute of Asian and African countries.
In 2016, the hero of our article died in Moscow at the age of 85.
Contribution to Science
He began his scientific career with studies of ancient Chinese society. Throughout almost his entire career, he was most interested in theories of history and macroprocesses. This is also due to the fact that already in his early studies the scientist discovered contradictions between the existing historical facts and the formation theory, which at that time were accepted in the USSR. If you follow it, then it was believed that in the Ancient East there was a slave formation. Acquainted with the characteristics of ancient Chinese society, he joined the discussion about the Asian mode of production.
In 1966, Vasilyev co-authored with Stuchevsky, in which he expressed his view of the coexistence of feudal and slave-owning modes of exploitation. Moreover, none of them had state significance, since in China the natural conditions required the labor of a large number of people, which hindered the development of specific forms of exploitation, the researchers said.
"History of the East"
The final work was a textbook published in 1993. "History of the East" by Leonid Sergeyevich Vasiliev was published in two volumes. To date, it has been reprinted five times already.
In his work, the hero of our article tries to summarize the vast factual material, based on his own concept of the development of the historical process. In Volume 1 of History of the East, Leonid Sergeyevich Vasilyev contrasts the rapidly developing West with the conservative East. The specific path of China did not create the conditions for the development of the human mind, technical progress, and did not contribute to the emancipation of the individual.
Religion features
An important contribution is made in the textbook “History of Religions of the East” by Leonid Vasiliev, which was published for the first time in 1988.
In this book, he talks about how different teachings and beliefs arose in eastern countries. Much attention in the History of Religions by Leonid Vasiliev is given to their role in the political and socio-economic life of societies and their cultures.
In conclusion, he characterizes Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism. At present, the “History of Religions of the East,” by Leonid Sergeyevich Vasiliev, is a key teaching aid for exploring this topic.
Story concept
Based on his own articles of the 1980s, which dealt with the problems of property and power, Vasilyev derives the concept of world history. In his research, he transfers the theoretical basis of research in order to delve into the basics of understanding the general process.
The result is several fundamental ideas that he sets out in his six-volume.
Differences between West and East
The first idea is based on a comparison of ancient and ancient Eastern traditions. Vasiliev notes that the sociopolitical meaning of the social structure in antiquity is based on the formation of a civil society that creates elective, rather than hereditary, rule.
This difference explains the advantages of the West over the East, which he calls the “world city” and “world village”, respectively.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire and the advent of barbarian kingdoms on the territory of the European West, ancient traditions find themselves in the midst of a “world village”, becoming the foundation of a Western European medieval city that is starting to re-form.
The success of the European West
Vasiliev sees the success of medieval Western European cities in feudalism, which becomes a modification of the eastern structure of society. She has an inherent desire for conservatism and stability. Moreover, in the city itself, power is based on the ancient type of self-government. This determines the success of the West compared to the traditional East.
The Renaissance and the Reformation, which opened the way to freedom of thought, as well as the Age of Enlightenment and the Great Geographical Discoveries, are becoming decisive stages in the formation of the historical process of the ancient city, which has constantly strengthened its position since then. At a fast pace he managed to overtake the static and traditional East.
In the XV-XVI centuries, the West, which relied on ancient traditions, managed to make almost the rest of the world colonial dependent on itself.
"World Village" takes a leadership role
Vasiliev’s third key idea was based on the fact that the liberal antique-bourgeois path of evolution, having proved its superiority, practically turned out to be its own grave digger. At the same time, the historian believed that this did not happen as a result of unjustified Marxist calculations on the European proletariat, not satisfied with the bourgeoisie. The fault was that the role of the proletariat was taken by the "world village", dissatisfied with its backwardness, that is, a world that developed outside the West.
Accelerating the pace of industrialization and modernization, together with the social policy of the government elected by the people, has led to the fact that the capitalist countries have significantly enriched themselves. The world outside the West reacted sharply to this, starting with Bolshevik Russia, which crashed during the First World War, and ending with totalitarian regimes that felt the bitterness of that war. To them he attributed German Nazism, Italian fascism, many other corporate states of America and Europe. All this over the XX century has significantly changed the face of the planet.
Under the dominance of the capitalist system, the triumph of the bourgeoisie is replaced by totalitarian terror. In the XX century, this is precisely what causes the Second World War and the Cold War, which took place against the backdrop of the decolonization of countries that were significantly behind in their development.
The next factor is the acceleration of their reproduction. Vasiliev notes that with an increase in the world's population in the 20th century from one and a half billion people to six and a half billion, in Africa the population growth was almost 10-fold, and in Western countries almost invisible. This led to a new heyday of the aggressive expansion of fundamental Islam, based on medieval traditions.
If you follow the concept of Vasiliev, the process of evolution of mankind is not based on successes in the economy and productive forces, but depends on ideas belonging to a creative minority. It is due to this that the foundation for evolution is created or limiting factors appear. Correct ideas become the basis for prosperity, and erroneous ideas or their complete absence leads to entropy, behind which lies a halt in development, repression, terror, degradation and destruction.
The proposed concept caused a rather large resonance. Some scientists came to the conclusion that the ideas presented by Leonid Sergeyevich Vasiliev are based on the simplest possible scheme, designed to subjugate the whole real history. Researchers at the same time point to numerous contradictions in the work of the hero of our article, violations of logical connections, free treatment of historical events, simplifications, outright blunders that do not allow taking work seriously.