What is the reason for the uniqueness of the West Siberian relief? Reasons for the uniqueness of Eastern culture

When I was young, I visited the Urals for the first time. The main purpose of my visit there was a group hike to the Dyatlov Pass, as well as visiting other interesting places Sverdlovsk region. In the Urals, I immediately noticed some hilly terrain, which is not typical for the plains of the European part of Russia. I quickly found out the reason for this phenomenon from my Ural mountain guide.

Relief-forming factors of the West Siberian Plain

For one or another surface shape on globe internal and external factors.

The first group includes those processes that continuously occur within the Earth itself and are manifested on its surface by changes in relief. Often such changes take on a convex shape.

Internal processes affected the relief of Western Siberia in such a way that they grew at its western edge Ural Mountains as a result of contact with the East European Platform. From the same event, the entire territory of the plain acquired characteristic hilliness with a height difference of up to 200 meters.

External factors most often include:

• solar exposure;
• the power of wind and water;
• influence of space.

Together, external factors destroy the convex features on the globe through weathering. For this reason, the Ural Mountains are far from the highest in the world, since the ancient mountain system has been mercilessly cut by the winds for thousands of years.

Traces of a glacier on the relief of the West Siberian Plain

Water wears away stone - this saying can be taken literally when we're talking about about the study of relief.

12 thousand years ago the last glacial period. During that period, the relief form of Western Siberia acquired features that have survived to this day: multiple valleys and lakes.

Why is the relief of Western Siberia wavy?

The reason for this lies in the age of tectonic plates. Western Siberia located on a young plate, the foundation of which consists of sedimentary-volcanogenic rocks.

On both sides, the West Siberian Platform is sandwiched by ancient, much harder platforms, the foundation of which consists of gneisses, shales and granites.

* Climate and geography.

* Traditionalism of culture.

* The enormous role of religion in public and individual life.

* Features of anthropology and psychology of the people of the East.

Features of Eastern thinking

* It is more introverted than Western thinking.

* It is more emotional-figurative than logical.

* Reason is understood more broadly than in the West: it is not so much a human ability as a cosmic force.

* Eastern thinking is not characterized by anthropocentrism.

Religion and philosophy in Ancient India

The East is heterogeneous in its composition and, despite the presence of common essential features, is represented by civilizations and cultures that are often not just different, but hostilely opposed to each other. Their special features ancient Indian civilization also has. This is, first of all:

* Rigid caste social structure.

* Intellectual and religious passivity of people.

* Introverted nature of religiosity

* Priority of the irrational over the rational.

Philosophy of Antiquity

Ancient philosophy (first Greek and then Roman) covers the period of its immediate existence from the 12th to 11th centuries. BC e. to 5-6 centuries n. e. It originated in the ancient Greek poleis (city-states) with a democratic orientation and the direction of its content, the method of philosophizing differed from the ancient Eastern methods of philosophizing. Early Greek philosophy is still closely connected with mythology, with sensory images and metaphorical language. However, she immediately rushed to consider the question of the relationship between sensory images of the world and it itself as an infinite cosmos.

Before the eyes of the ancient Greeks, who lived during the childhood of civilization, the world appeared as a huge accumulation of various natural and social processes.

How to live in this world? Who controls it? How to harmonize your own capabilities with supreme forces that are inaccessible to human influence space? Being was associated with many elements that are in continuous change, and consciousness with limited quantity concepts that denied these elements in a fixed, constant form. The search for a stable origin in the changing cycle of phenomena in the vast cosmos was main goal the first philosophers. Philosophy, thus, appears in its subject matter as the doctrine of “first principles and causes” (Aristotle).

In the development of ancient philosophy, we can, with some degree of convention, distinguish several stages:

Ancient pre-philosophy, which covers the period from the 8th to the 7th centuries. BC.

Pre-Socratic period - covers the period from the 7th to the 5th centuries. BC e. Initially, ancient philosophy developed in Asia Minor (Miletus school, Heraclitus), then in Italy (Pythagoreans, Eleatic school, Empedocles) and on mainland Greece (Anaxagoras, atomists). main topic early Greek philosophy - the principles of the universe, its origin and structure. The philosophers of this period were mainly nature researchers, astronomers, and mathematicians.

Believing that the birth and death of natural things does not occur by chance or out of nothing, they looked for a beginning, or a principle that explains the natural variability of the world. The first philosophers considered the beginning to be a single primal substance: water (Thales) or air (Anaximenes), the infinite (Anaximander), the Pythagoreans considered the limit and the infinite to be the beginning, giving rise to an ordered cosmos, cognizable through number. Subsequent authors (Empedocles, Democritus) named not one, but several principles (four elements, an infinite number of atoms). Like Xenophanes, many of the early thinkers criticized traditional mythology and religion.

Philosophers have wondered about the causes of order in the world. Heraclitus, Anaxagoras taught about ruling the world rational beginning (Logos, Mind). Parmenides formulated the doctrine of true being, accessible only to thought. All subsequent development of philosophy in Greece (from the pluralistic systems of Empedocles and Democritus to Platonism) to one degree or another demonstrates a response to the problems posed by Parmenides.

Classical period covers the period from about half of the 5th century. and until the end of the 4th century. BC e. The period of the Pre-Socratics is replaced by sophistry. Sophists are traveling paid teachers of virtue, their focus is on the life of man and society. The sophists saw knowledge, first of all, as a means to achieve success in life; they recognized rhetoric as the most valuable - mastery of words, the art of persuasion. The sophists considered traditional customs and moral norms relative. Their criticism and skepticism in their own way contributed to the reorientation of ancient philosophy from knowledge of nature to understanding the inner world of man.

A clear expression of this “turn” was the philosophy of Socrates. He believed that the main thing was knowledge of good, because evil, according to Socrates, comes from people’s ignorance of their true good. Socrates saw the path to this knowledge in self-knowledge, in caring for his immortal soul, and not about the body, in comprehending the essence of the main moral values, the conceptual definition of which was the main subject of Socrates' conversations. The philosophy of Socrates gave rise to the so-called. Socratic schools (Cynics, Megarics, Cyrenaics), differing in their understanding of Socratic philosophy.

The most outstanding student of Socrates was Plato, the creator of the Academy, the teacher of another major thinker of antiquity - Aristotle, who founded the Peripatetic school (Lyceum). They created holistic philosophical teachings, in which they examined almost the entire range of traditional philosophical topics, developed philosophical terminology and a set of concepts, the basis for subsequent ancient and European philosophy.

What was common in their teachings was: the distinction between a temporary, sensory-perceptible thing and its eternal, indestructible, comprehended by the mind essence; the doctrine of matter as an analogue of non-existence, the cause of the variability of things; an idea of ​​the rational structure of the universe, where everything has its purpose; understanding of philosophy as a science about the highest principles and purpose of all existence; recognition that the first truths are not proven, but are directly comprehended by the mind. Both of them recognized the state as the most important form of human existence, designed to serve his moral improvement. At the same time, Platonism and Aristotelianism had their own character traits, as well as discrepancies.

Both the teachings of Plato and the teachings of Aristotle, who created the second system of views of objective idealism after Plato, are full of contradictions. These teachings are not only two phases in the history of the struggle between idealism and materialism, but also two phases in the development of ancient Greek science. Important mathematical research is being carried out in Plato's school. Aristotle creates a grandiose encyclopedia of all contemporary science.

But in the field of philosophy, Plato and Aristotle are not only the creators of the reactionary doctrines of idealism. Plato develops issues of dialectics, theory of knowledge, aesthetics, and pedagogy. Aristotle creates the foundations of logic, develops problems of the theory of art, ethics, political economy, and psychology.

The Hellenistic period in the development of ancient philosophy - the end of the 4th century. - 1st century BC e.). In the Hellenistic era, the most significant, along with the Platonists and Peripatetics, were the schools of the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics. During this period, the main purpose of philosophy is seen in practical life wisdom. Ethics, focused not on social life, but on inner world an individual person. The theories of the universe and logic serve ethical purposes: developing the correct attitude towards reality to achieve happiness.

The Stoics represented the world as a divine organism, permeated and completely controlled by a fiery rational principle, the Epicureans - as various formations of atoms, skeptics called for refraining from making any statements about the world. Having different understandings of the paths to happiness, they all similarly saw human bliss in a serene state of mind, achieved by getting rid of false opinions, fears, and internal passions that lead to suffering. Accordingly, three directions can be distinguished in Roman philosophy: Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), Epicureanism (Titus Lucretius Carus), and skepticism.

The next stage of ancient philosophy (1st century BC - 5th - 6th centuries AD) falls on the period when Rome began to play a decisive role in the ancient world, under whose influence Greece also fell. In the last centuries of its existence, the dominant school of antiquity was Platonic, which took on the influences of Pythagoreanism, Aristotelianism and partly Stoicism. The period as a whole is characterized by interest in mysticism, astrology, magic (neopythagoreanism), various syncretic religious and philosophical texts and teachings (Chaldean oracles, Gnosticism, Hermeticism).

A feature of the Neoplatonic system was the doctrine of the origin of all things - the One, which is above being and thought and is understandable only in unity with it (ecstasy). As a philosophical movement, Neoplatonism differed high level school organization, developed commentary and pedagogical tradition. Its centers were Rome (Plotinus, Porphyry), Apamea (Syria), where there was a school of Iamblichus, Pergamum, where Iamblichus' student Aedesius founded the school, Alexandria (main representatives - Olympiodorus, John Philoponus, Simplicius, Aelius, David), Athens (Plutarch of Athens , Syrian, Proclus, Damascus).

A detailed logical development of a philosophical system describing the hierarchy of the world born from the beginning was combined in Neoplatonism with the magical practice of “communication with the gods” (theurgy), and an appeal to pagan mythology and religion.

In ancient philosophical systems, philosophical materialism and idealism were already expressed, which largely influenced subsequent philosophical concepts. The history of philosophy has always been an arena of struggle between two main directions - materialism and idealism. The spontaneity and, in a certain sense, straightforwardness of the philosophical thinking of the ancient Greeks and Romans make it possible to realize and more easily understand the essence the most important problems, which accompany the development of philosophy from its inception to the present day.

In the philosophical thinking of antiquity, ideological clashes and struggles were projected in a much clearer form than happens later. The initial unity of philosophy and expanding special scientific knowledge, their systematic identification explains very clearly the relationship between philosophy and special (private) sciences. Philosophy permeates the entire spiritual life of ancient society; it was an integral factor of ancient culture. The wealth of ancient philosophical thinking, the formulation of problems and their solutions were the source from which the philosophical thought of subsequent millennia drew.

The publication of material about the authentic ritual of a Russian wedding, examples of which can be seen in some eastern regions of the Vologda region, as we see, created a discussion about why it was in this region that the traditional folk culture of the pre-revolutionary period was able to begin to revive in our era. Let's try to formulate some answers to this question.

This is truly a unique region in the sense that much of what makes up cultural heritage our country. There are a number of reasons that ensured the functioning of a kind of “reservation” of cultural formats that have long sunk into oblivion on a national scale. These are reasons of both geographical and historical-political nature.

Of course, after the Great Patriotic War, in the heyday of the Soviet era, “grandmother’s rituals” went underground and were gradually forgotten. But unlike most other regions of central Russia, the processes of urbanization in other areas, which started in the last decades of the 19th century, were delayed here for at least half a century. And by by and large urbanization, on the scale on which it occurred throughout the country, did not work out here. Until very recently, there was, and in many ways still is, a living village that has not always changed much since ancient times.
Current depopulation trends rural areas in the eastern regions of the Vologda region are alarming. But here there was no such a significant gap in time between those eras when traditional folk culture was alive and the present time. For example, in areas directly bordering the capital region, rural depopulation began to occur in the last decades of the last century, and this process gained momentum throughout the 20th century - three wars, collectivization, industrialization at the expense of rural human resources, plus the consolidation of collective farms.
All these dramatic processes for the village erased even from the historical memory of the people now living there, everything connected with traditional culture. The generations that could remember “how things really were” were gone back to the 30s and 40s of the last century, which was noted, by the way, in literature and cinema.
Here, cut off from big world“Bear corner”, as we saw in the example of a traditional wedding ceremony, bearers of authentic culture, at least those brought up in a traditional village, are sometimes alive today. And when enthusiasts became interested in folk culture in the 90s, sources of knowledge and skills were nearby. The chain of continuity has not been broken, and this makes it possible for everyone today to experience the taste and spirit of the life that our distant ancestors lived.

Remoteness played an important role in maintaining an authentic cultural environment. There are no big cities nearby; until the 80s of the last century there were not even highways, which would connect the region with the “mainland”. It cannot be said that these areas were isolated from the outside world. IN Soviet time Aviation operated, navigation was carried out along the Sukhona River, and there was passenger traffic. But the absence of migration flows, a very small number of visitors from other regions, close human connections of local residents - all these factors had a beneficial effect on the social environment.
The demographic crisis, which radically affected life in these places, occurred already during the Great Patriotic War and immediately after it. As reported in one of the books on local history of the Nyuksen region, about two and a half thousand residents of this area did not return from the front. How much this is can be understood if you know that even now the entire population of this area barely reaches ten thousand people. But it was not only the losses of the war that caused the demographic crisis. As local historians write, the lion's share of those participants in the Second World War, natives of the region, who survived, did not return home to their villages, remaining to raise the cities lying in ruins. And third: the mass exodus of rural youth, until the early 60s, to work in cities, in enterprises and industries of the North. All this caused, as we now see, irreparable damage to the demographic potential of the region. But, nevertheless, all this happened much later than the national average.

The special atmosphere of life in the region also has a beneficial effect on the preservation of an authentic social environment. Sociology is now actively studying the life of remote territories. The conclusions of researchers, many of whom collected field material specifically in the Vologda region, are largely applicable to generalize the situation in the areas we are talking about now.
Sociologists have discovered that there is a direct connection between the age of a particular settlement, the format economic activity and the relationships between the people living in it. Let's say, arose in Soviet times settlements, in which there were significant migrations, today they are not even a community, but a collection of “atomized households” located next to each other only for the reason that there is a common infrastructure necessary for life at a given, specific point. There is no deep contact between people; there are no communities as such.
And, on the contrary, in many historically established settlements, with rich history, the presence of close human relationships, including family and kinship relationships, preserves at all possible costs an atmosphere of mutual support, closeness, and unity. The more remote the area is from the regions that are actively absorbing human capital, the more clearly this trend is expressed.
In this sense, the areas of the east of the Vologda region are a bright and unusual example of living collectivism for our country. In more southern regions the central part of the country, village collectivism, it is most often about the life of local marginalized people. Here is the integrity of local communities important factor, creating the atmosphere of a living outback, a place where people sometimes look quite happy, despite the fact that there is no escape from any problems here.

And one last thing. The remoteness of the region has historically shaped the structure of social relations in society, somewhat different from the “standard” of the times Russian Empire. In principle, there is nothing unusual in this - the further from the center, the less the spread of serfdom, the more actual freedoms the population had, although this may be a bit of a rough generalization, but in general it is true.
In the forest expanses of the Sukhona basin, peasants had the opportunity to independently manage their farms; their situation was disproportionately better than that of peasants in the central provinces. Many lived prosperously, this undoubtedly contributed to the development of culture.
The combination of the above factors is the basis of today’s originality and “non-standard” region of the east of the Vologda region. Either way, it is a culturally and socially interesting space to explore and worth visiting.