More than 100 thousand armored vehicles were assembled in the secret workshops of this enterprise. World record in tank building. Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil is one of the largest factories in the world.
The film shows the continuity of Russian gunsmiths from the Demidovs to the present day. The history of tanks with a Ural character began not in the twentieth century, but much earlier, with Peter I. The Emperor understood perfectly well that not only natural resources and technology determines the outcome of the case. Success is always associated with correct selection people. And the main talent of Peter the Great was that he knew how to select people to match himself.
In Russian there is good word"companion". These are the Demidovs who became such associates for the emperor-reformer. Merchants. Mining experts. Excellent production organizers. This period can be conditionally called the first industrialization of the Urals.
At the end of 1941, a dozen large enterprises and research institutes were evacuated from the western part of the country to Nizhny Tagil. The war forced our country, as in the time of Peter the Great, to begin a new, second industrialization of the Urals. Every second T-34 was produced right here - in Nizhny Tagil. During these years, a strong foundation was laid for the defense industry of subsequent decades and even today.
The cross-cutting plot lines of the film are the stories of two outstanding designers: Leonid Kartsev and Vladimir Potkin. Two tank building legends are associated with their names: T-72 and T-90S. More than thirty thousand T-72s were produced in the Soviet Union and under license in other countries. And Tagil fighting machine The T-90S became the world's best-selling main battle tank in beginning of XXI century. Although at the end of the twentieth century, many people both in our country and abroad were confident that this enterprise would perish.
The history of Uralvagonzavod is the clearest example of how one plant extended the entire tank industry of the country. And this was done by people with a special, Ural character. Their heroic work and great talent allowed Russia to remain a tank superpower.
In September 2013, the country's leadership was presented with a top secret development - the Armata heavy combat transformer. It was created at Uralvagonzavod. There is no similar technology in the West. In the future, it is the Armata that will become the basis of the Russian armored forces.
Today, "defense workers" are beginning to feel like a respected class in Russian society. And the result of the work of defense production will not only be the rearmament of the army. Main result- this is the new industrialization of Russia. After all, the defense industry has always been the locomotive of the entire industry.
The Ural mentality, as a special warehouse of general ideological positions, represents big problem. When analyzed, it quickly breaks down either into the ethno-mentalities of the peoples living in the Urals (Nenets, Khanty, Mansi, Komi, Russians, Udmurts, Bashkirs), or into geo-landscape or, as A. O. Boronoev calls them, “territorial mentalities” (Boronoev, 2007: 9), and V. A. Mazin “nature-conforming mentalities” (Mazin, 2004: 1). The polar Urals and the tundra, the middle Urals and the forest belt, the southern Urals and the steppe - all of this influences mentality in different ways.
In addition, the Ural mentality is included either in the Siberian one, for example, in V.V. Pundani’s “Historical Psychology of the Ural-Siberian Society” (Kurgan, 2009), or in the world of the Volga region, as in E.V. Nikitina’s “General and Special in Mentality peoples of the Volga and Urals region" (Saransk, 2013).
Also, Riphean is often nominally recognized as a bridge, or border, between Europe and Asia. But which Europe? And which Asia? The Northern, Subpolar and Polar Belts certainly fall under the North category. The mentality of northerners in literature is sometimes rightly generalized without distinction between ethnic groups. For example, Lobova V. A. “Emotional and mental characteristics of indigenous ethnic groups of the north” (Khanty-Mansiysk, 2010).
The Southern Urals are considered as part of the Central Asian world. For example, in the book “Interaction of Ethnic Groups in Southern Urals: Complex ethnological and anthropological studies" (Ufa, 2006) in the paragraph by M. R. Bizhanova on Bashkir-Kazakh ethnic connections and interactions.
The origins of the Ural mentality are sought in history, prehistoric eras, in various lifestyles, mythologies, religious traditions.
Thus, the Ural mentality is included in a more general one: for example, ethnically - in the Finno-Ugric world, geographically - or in northern world, or to the Siberian formation, or to the Volga region.
The Southern Urals are included in the space of the Central Asian steppe. Bashkiria, for example, will be characterized by a complex interweaving of various ethnic communities: these are the Old Believers, and Bashkir-Kazakh ethnic ties, the Udmurts and the Mordovian population of Bashkortostan (Interaction of ethnic groups in the Southern Urals: Comprehensive ethnological and anthropological studies, 2006).
The most important question is what exactly is Uralic in the Ural mentality? The answer to this question, in my opinion, lies in the area of synthesis of several ideas, but in general is difficult to determine.
Ethnographic studies of the Ural mentality in pre-revolutionary Russia
B. M. Zhitkov indicates, as it were, the limits of applicability of the ethnomental method for researchers of the 19th century in Russia: “it is very difficult to penetrate mental life people, whose range of ideas is very different from ours, especially with insufficient familiarity with their language" (Traditional normative culture, organization of power and economy of peoples Northern Eurasia And Far East, 2000: 78). V.V. Pundani, on the contrary, argues that the Ural and Siberian mentalities are “a certain specificity of the conditions in which the Russian ethnic group found itself” (Pundani, 2009: 68). V. A. Lobova separates and clarifies separately the mentality of indigenous northerners and the mentality of migrants (Lobova, 2010: 19). In some cases, the world of the aborigines is somewhat hidden from Russian researchers and removed from the modern era or from civilization in general. In some cases, differences between indigenous peoples themselves are overshadowed by differences between natives and newcomers. In some, on the contrary, there is some understanding overall impact landscape, very close to Spengler’s concept of race, which depends primarily on the soil and landscape.
Archeology provides evidence that the commonality is sufficient large order existed in the Urals. Just recently, for example, the culture of the Perm animal style, widespread from the Kama region to the Yenisei, and in distant eras. For example, the Ananyinskaya culture is attributed to a single proto-Finno-Ugric tribe. If we understand the mentality of the Urals in this Spenglerian meaning of soil, landscape, race, then such forms of thinking should remain to this day. In this case, one can agree with the writer A. Ivanov when he writes that “The Urals are forging the aliens for themselves.” Such “pressure” of the landscape can only be overcome by a large city, and even then within certain limits. This is possible due to the fact that megacities, according to Spengler, deny landscape.
The literature on ethnomentalities can be divided into three periods: studies in Russian Empire, works of Soviet authors and works analyzing the problems formed after the collapse of the USSR Russian Federation. In each period, a certain view of the thinking of the people was developed. Root transformations are characteristic of the subject of research. In the first period (Imperial), the subject of research and observation is a Russian or European scientist, pioneer, exile, who is to varying degrees (sometimes very weakly) familiar with the Urals. Such evidence is extremely difficult to refer to because it is analogous to describing modern Russian character, for example, from crime news, or relying on stories about divorce proceedings. In general, it is advisable to deliberately look for some out-of-the-ordinary cases.
The first works of research in the Russian Empire are distinguished by ethnographic accents. One of the first works not only in Russian thought, but also in world literature, is G. Novitsky’s book “A Brief Description of the Ostyak People” of 1715. Here are the first descriptions of the Khanty. Or the work of M. I. Mikhailov “Physical and moral properties of the Zyryans” of 1852. Then the concept of foreigners was applied to the peoples of the Urals, and their material forms of life were not perceived as defining.
In general, ethnicity is only up to certain limits participates in some major forms, it is extremely difficult for an ethnos to clarify the concept of development from the standpoint civilizational approach. For a small ethnic group, development is population growth, good command of their native language, knowledge of their own cultural forms. Participation in the modern era is very difficult.
Using an ethnomental approach, that is, recognizing that the ethnic component is the main one in the description of the Ural mentality, you can try to draw up portraits of each of the peoples of the Urals. You just need to make an allowance for the fact that these data, especially those relating to the time of the Russian Empire, to put it mildly, cannot be accepted entirely. Often, these are very subjective comments.
Nenets
B. M. Zhitkov identifies the following qualities of the stone (i.e., Ural) Nenets. Mutual assistance. Delicacy and politeness. Treatment with wife: affectionate. “In general, they are true to their word, extremely delicate and polite” (Traditional normative culture..., 2000: 78). Equanimity and dispassion stem from the habit of self-control. Equanimity also manifests itself in relation to “fast-flowing time” (Golovnev, 1995: 299). You should not rush or rush, as in the harsh conditions of tundra migrations (migrations) this can lead to bad results. You should not rush either when starting or completing a task. A connoisseur of the Urals, A. V. Golovnev, wondered “how does the craving for lifelong wandering and the ability for limitless expectation coexist in one character?” (Golovnev, 1995: 300). A long wait (whether at a tundra airport or an expedition) does not mean sluggishness when the time comes to act. On the contrary, the Nenets is characterized by an attitude towards a certain rhythm, drawn from reality, from surrounding patterns. Since there is no point in either rushing or slowing down nature, on the contrary, this can only do harm, it is necessary to eliminate “excessive excitement” in oneself, to develop moderation and a sense of rhythm as much as possible.
Ob Ugrians: Khanty and Mansi
“Hospitable, honest, kind-hearted and helpful. Each of them will not leave their neighbor in trouble. Murders almost never happen between them; and theft and deception in one’s own environment are considered big crime. The main shortcomings include: drunkenness, superstition, cowardice” (Traditional normative culture..., 2000: 92). Treatment with wife: harsh.
Several testimonies about Mansi people. "Laziness, stubbornness community service does not occur” (ibid.: 84). “They are always evasive when it comes to the person, but when it comes to society, they are, on the contrary, persistent” (ibid.: 85). The evasiveness in talking about personal matters can probably be explained by the nature of information gathering at that time.
Komi-Zyryans
“According to general reviews, the Zyryans are cunning, resourceful, witty and at the same time very hospitable, helpful and honest” (In the Zyryan Territory..., 2011: 148). The ingenuity and intelligence of the Zyryans is manifested in the numerous equipment in which they use sophistication in animal and fishing industries. “The Zyryan always starts a task thoughtfully and does not like to carry it out thoughtlessly” (ibid.: 149). “The Zyryans not only make a living themselves, but also conduct trade. As traders, in their intelligence and resourcefulness, they are rarely inferior to anyone” (ibid.).
“The Zyryans are distinguished by their enterprise, energy and ability to work, and their penchant for crafts” (ibid.: 156). They can get scammed. They quickly adopted Christianity after the legendary defeat of the Magi in a fair religious duel with Stephen of Perm. They are willing to read and write and study.
In such descriptions there are many contradictions: sometimes they talk about the honesty of the Zyryans, sometimes about the fact that they like to fraudulently “fool” someone. Sometimes they talk about the wealth of the Zyryans, especially the Pechora and Izhemsky people, sometimes about poverty.
M.I. Mikhailov created a “brilliant” description of the ethnic character of the Zyryans in detail.
“Signs of the wild and gloomy nature surrounding the Zyryans are reflected in their physical and moral properties. It takes a little observation to notice in this people the peaceful carelessness, the serene calm, and the simple complacency that a uniform and carefree life gives. Everything exposes the Zyryan as a simpleton in the broad moral meaning of this word; but not suddenly, not at first sight. At the first meeting, he will seem like a man of suspicious appearance, lethargic, frail, as if sick in consciousness; and you will immediately suspect in him a mask of pretense, which he wears unskillfully. His downcast gaze, indirect angry glances, rude, clumsy, stubborn silence on the proposed questions when he hears them on non-native language, some kind of vulgar shyness combined with expressive phlegm, inspiring extreme mistrust.
At the sight of a stranger, a Zyryan is generally timid, gloomy, taciturn, and you will consider his forced speech impudent, because the pronunciation of the Zyryan language is harsh, abrupt, devoid of pleasantness and euphony; Unaccustomed to the ear, even his gratitude will sound rude, but in fact this is only a combination of syllables, such is the power of pronunciation of words in the language” (Zyryan and Zyryan region..., 2010: 73-74).
It is clear that the Zyryans are being spoken about by a person who belongs to a completely different world. Zyryanin lives in his native natural environment, and he (the researcher) can only work with the terms “seems”, “may seem”. Zyryan is looking for a break from the hard work of a hunter and fisherman. He (the researcher) seems to have a sense of peaceful carelessness. Simple joy calls the northerner’s soul “simple complacency.” "Vulgar shyness." It is not entirely correct to apply such an expression to a person who spends six months in the taiga, far from even his family. Upon returning from a long fishing trip, he, for example, may not speak to anyone in the family for several days, recovering from long loneliness.
But when working with these sources, we must take into account that they represent the first (ethnographic) stage of the study of the ethnic mentalities of the peoples of the North, and as such, require “lenience.”
Udmurts
G. Miller considered the Udmurts stubborn (a trait, in his opinion, inherent in all Finno-Ugric peoples). A. Herzen - timid. There are many mentions of negative traits: cunning, secrecy, malice, deceit, stubbornness, lethargy, lack of curiosity, selfishness (Shklyaev, 2003: 16-17). It is likely that much of the evidence is due to the environment in which it was obtained. In addition, the researcher of the Udmurt character G.K. Shklyaev concludes that the Udmurts showed these qualities to foreigners, but completely different ones to their fellow tribesmen. This is very typical of pagan principles. Thus, among the Nenets, theft is considered a low act, but from a Zyryan, to whom a Nenets has hired himself as a shepherd, it is possible to drive away several deer. At least this is the case described. But how can one draw a general conclusion about character? We can only conclude that paganism is largely built on the idea that the good and the good are concentrated in their own people, and the bad and the evil, most likely, belong to another people.
Russians
The peculiarity of the Russian ethnic group in the Ural context is that it is not limited to this context. The Urals are part of the large Russian people. Russians were divided into classes. Clergy, military, peasantry. Cossacks and Kerzhaks (Ural Old Believers). Exiles and factory owners (mining authorities). Finally, the intra-imperial sovereigns (patrimonial rulers) - the Stroganovs, the Demidovs. These are all different mentalities. But in this article the emphasis is still placed on ethnicity, on folk. Therefore, it seems correct that in this case we should focus on the peasants.
The most important features of the worldview of the Ural and Siberian peasants should be considered: the desire to freely dispose of their personality, land, economy, the results of their labor, choose a place of residence, move around the territory of their Fatherland, respect for nature, for work, for people, for children, for people old age (Pundani, 2009: 128).
Russians of the 19th century are characterized by “the stratification of the peasantry into various categories of welfare: poor, middle and prosperous with their inherent mentality traits.” Also, the Old Believers, who in the Urals were called Kerzhaks, had a special mentality. The fact that they have different identities is confirmed by the phrase of one of the Old Believers - “I am a Kerzhak, but my wife is Russian” (Golovnev, 2011: 45).
In general, when people create large government forms, participates in history and civilization, it is difficult to evaluate it from the standpoint of ethnic mentality. It is necessary either to significantly expand the concept of a people, and this is difficult to imagine, or to recognize several very different groups from each other in one people. Estate is the limit of nationality. Vogul princes and Bashkir warriors are something completely different. The first ones did not stand out hierarchically, they lived the same way as their relatives. The second belonged to heroic tales. Another thing is the Russian governors who appeared “where the sables flashed” (Ivanov, 2011: 77).
Bashkirs
“The features of a nomadic mentality were and are still present in the mentality of the Bashkirs. Thus, many Russian researchers of the 18th-19th centuries. They noted such a character trait as contemplation” (Yamaeva, 2010: 195). Among the Bashkirs “there are no major quarrels, fights, riots, etc. If there are any quarrels, more or less major misunderstandings, then such for the most part are resolved by mullahs, whose decisions the disputants almost always submit to. Further, when solving their social issues, the Bashkirs do not show passion or excitement; everything is done quietly. To clarify their confusion, they first of all turn to the mullah or the elderly. The latter, like the mullah, enjoy great honor and respect from their compatriots” (Yamaeva, 2010: 197).
Study of the Ural mentality in Soviet and post-Soviet times Soviet period s
In the Soviet Union there are a number of important changes in ethnomentalities. As Shklyaev writes, “if before the revolution the national character of the Udmurts was practically determined only by the peasantry (when talking about the mentality of the Udmurts, only the peasantry was meant, since they practically made up the entire Udmurt population), then in Soviet era(especially in post-war years) it is no longer possible to talk about a certain national character common to the entire ethnic group; the working class and intelligentsia already had their own mentality, although it is possible that the common core of the national character managed to survive” (Shklyaev, 2003).
What in pre-revolutionary times was the property of only the Russian ethnos (meaning divisions into estates and divisions within estates), has become, to varying degrees, characteristic of some small peoples of the Urals. For small nations, this is, first of all, a division into rural and urban populations.
In general, the emphasis during this period is on the hard work of each people and on economic forms of activity. Much has been written on this issue in domestic Marxist literature, so here we can only mention this stage and approach.
As a result, national elites were formed (for example, Bashkir, Udmurt), who assessed the creativity, character and motivation of peoples from completely different positions. Where there was a rebellion, there appeared the self-defense of the people from invasion. Where the remnants of paganism “were”, indigenous thought and national identity appeared.
The problem was that they lost the basis for building a community. The ideology of the Union was based on the fact that material form primary. Even if so, this does not mean that the spiritual form can be anything, arbitrary, general, constructed, alien, one for everyone. When immersed in any of the indigenous thoughts, it becomes clear how great the diversity of cultural forms is. The only thing that was not understood and accepted in time was that it is the spiritual (intellectual, mental) component that will stimulate the development of society and, including, no matter how funny it seemed in the industrial era, the productive forces.
Since the 70s, due to such social forms, as postmodern and new age, the West began to turn to a variety of cultures of the world (not only India and China, which were developing well at that time, but also third and fourth world countries). Soviet Union, which had such a colossal reserve of cultures and peoples, began to lag behind in this. It’s a strange paradox, but when there were already Hare Krishnas in the West, and the instruments of African and Australian aborigines were already being used by New Age and ambient musicians, hardly anyone outside the specialized institutes had heard of Nenets bells, Mansi sankvyltap, Udmurt krezy, Bashkir throat singing. and no one even thought of restoring the datsans of Russian Buddhists in Kalmykia and Buryatia. We were late with the discovery, so to speak, of full-scale spiritual production, which unfolded in the West in the last third of the 20th century. Recordings of Russian folklore were also not only not heard widely, but moreover, in order to even get such recordings, the musicians themselves already in the nineties in Russia had to overcome a number of bureaucratic barriers.
The Union has fallen behind, in my opinion, precisely because of this practical application cultures and mentalities of small peoples to the development of a common cultural space. National elites now had a high degree of understanding of their cultures, but at that time they did not know how to include these cultures in Modernity (it is clear that this concept itself did not appear).
But do they need such a community of cultures in principle? How can such a community be justified based on the mentality of an ethnic group? In practice this is impossible. It’s easier to isolate yourself among the people than to look for something universal. It’s just that at the moment of the crisis of modernity, they began to doubt the value of this universal, at least in its Western understanding.
Post-Soviet Russia: "mythoreal" mentality
In post-Soviet Russia, ideas are beginning to be put forward that, to one degree or another, interpret the Soviet and imperial experience, as well as original concepts that represent, as it were, a root thought based on an autochthonous spiritual or intellectual tradition, native language, landscape, history. They did not appear during the imperial period or due to poor knowledge of these traditions by researchers, or due to the fact that this knowledge did not participate in any way in the cultural space. During the Soviet period, little was allowed due to the closed nature of spiritual topics.
A. O. Boronoev notes that “any mentality reflects true story(era), various conditions life, and it is also mythological” (Boronoev, 2007: 9).
a) Two pairs of opposites
For the Urals, the gene code is its landscape (Ivanov, 2011: 33); in my opinion, these two concepts should be correlated and synthesized.
So, the Urals simultaneously has two pairs of opposites. The first pair are equal, or symmetrical principles. The second pair are opposite principles.
The symmetrical sides of the Urals are the Western Urals (Pre-Urals) and the Eastern Urals (Trans-Urals). The basins of the Volga-Kama and Ob-Irtysh rivers are equal in size. Opposite parties are the Polar Urals and the Southern Urals. Living conditions at these two poles are radically different. The pair of opposites here is Cold-Heat, Darkness (Polar Night)-Light. Further, within the entire Great Belt, a reconfiguration of this relationship is observed.
Paleobotanists have found that climate change was manifested either in the advance of the forest belt onto the steppe in south direction, or, on the contrary, the steppe space to the north with the replacement of forest. These changes caused violent ethnocultural and economic changes within the North-South axis.
IN historical era A striking example is the advance of the Russians from West to East in the late Middle Ages, or the Huns from East to West in the early Middle Ages.
b) Ural matrix
The concept of the Ural matrix was developed in the works of historian Alexey Ivanov. A. Ivanov’s matrix consists of 5 elements: mythological and ideological images drawn from the Ural landscape, a specific understanding of freedom (“choice of bondage”), the cultural ideal of a master, the socio-economic principle of a “state within a state”. The latter forms and special character person.
Thus, the Stroganovs, thanks to the principle of “powers within powers,” form their own “version of the Ural character: faith in the master, soul-searching deeds and work without haste. Such people will not drink away their wealth and arrange their home. But they will never, tearing their veins, rush beyond the limits of the possible” (Ivanov, 2011: 123).
There is also Demidov’s Ural character. This is when a person does not believe in anything, “when he survives any hard labor. When you have enough knowledge and skills on the fly. When militarization teaches a person not to be afraid of other people’s ruthless blows and to be ready to strike a fierce blow himself” (Ivanov, 2011: 125).
Criticism of his concept was made by another expert on the Urals, Andrei Golovnev, and consists, with the general acceptance of the concept, in the fact that “ characteristic feature The Urals are will and enterprise, and not at all hopeless bondage” (Golovnev, 2011: 48). We can agree with this, since enterprise is one of the frequently cited characteristics of the Zyryans, and will is characteristic of the Bashkirs. Golovnev writes that the very component of matrix bondage is imported to the Urals from outside state system Russians (both labor in estates in the Empire and labor of prisoners in the Union). But this is already a field for a separate discussion.
c) Winter mentality
Many researchers of the Urals and Siberia approach this idea one way or another.
The fact is that 64% of the Russian territory falls under the North category (Donskoy, Robbek, Sheikin, 2003). The category North, in turn, is given by the absolutely real, immediately existing relationship between cold and heat, darkness and light.
V. A. Kurguzov rightly notes that “the mentality of Russians is more winter than summer”, “winter for the mentality of Russians is a special phenomenon... in some way sacred” (Kurguzov, 2007: 20). Kurguzov very clearly sets out his concept of the “winter” mentality of Russians. The first thing he starts with is the generally accepted statement in the West that civilization cannot survive and develop in an area where the average annual temperature is less than 5C. Secondly, for Russia this is clearly an underestimated value. Third, civilization in Russia, even at temperatures an order of magnitude lower, survives cyclically. And finally, “in essence, this is what distinguishes it, the only one, from all other states that exist in much more favorable conditions"(ibid.).
Winter and northern are close concepts in terms of the degree of expression of the pairs of opposites Cold-Heat, Darkness-Light. Only winter expresses this relationship in time, and north in space. When winter and the north are combined, the result is a so-called absolutely uncomfortable state of climate, observed, for example, in the tundra of Taimyr.
The northern mentality is today studied in scientific psychological and medical discourse. Thus, V. A. Lobova writes: “Our research has shown that the core of personal characteristics among indigenous northerners are dense, elastic and sthenic properties: perseverance, determination, high affective charge, natural optimism and liveliness” (Lobova, 2010: 14). “Nenets men are characterized by a sense of responsibility, good self-control, rationalism, realism, and restraint. Nenok women are distinguished by their love of life, high moral demands, and a pronounced desire for identity and fulfilling the role of the keeper of the hearth” (Lobova, 2010: 14).
It is difficult to assess the overall harmony of the northern character. On the one hand, Nordicity is understood as calmness, balance, and, in fact, coldness of character. “In modern discourse, the northern soul is attributed to breadth and openness, directness and spontaneity, unhurriedness and sedateness, constancy of judgment and cold firmness, ruthlessness towards oneself, etc.” (Popkov, Tyugashev, 2006: 222).
On the other hand, the scarcity of flora and fauna, the long monotony of the winter season, the severity of the climate cause a certain starvation, a certain shortage, and hence supposedly receptivity, excitability, and irascibility. “Observers note the internal and hidden inconsistency and conflict of the northern soul” (Popkov, Tyugashev, 2006: 222). In general, conflict-harmony is the most vulnerable pair for attributing a soul type to a northern character, or some other one. We cannot exclude a simple personal dimension of life, one way or another connected with tension, calm, the resolution of some contradictions, and the search for necessary solutions.
Thus, winter and/or northern mentalities are important components for understanding the mentality of the Urals, Siberia, and all of Russia.
d) Conceptualization of space and movement
The difference between a root thought is that in it the most basic ideas may differ, and this leads to the formation of a completely different picture of the world, which in turn leads to the formation of a different reflection.
“If the Samoyed nomads see the earth as “moving,” then the Ugrians see it as “stable.” Therefore, “eternal” communities of people, animals, trees, rivers are formed on it” (Golovnev, 1995: 262). The people “as a whole turn out to be one house, standing on the same land and under the same sky. All the inhabitants of this House are connected with each other by one animal-wood-aquatic-human language” (Golovnev, 1995: 264). Thus, sometimes it is necessary to reconsider both the idea of space and the very concept of a people, which for small nations can mean something much more complex.
In the attitude of a people to movement and space, the difference in the characters of these peoples is also recognized. For example, A. V. Golovnev found out from Yu. K. Vella-Aivaseda the differences between the Khanty and Nenets character. “When a Khant rides a sled out of the forest into the open tundra, he shudders from the wind, while a Nenets straightens up and sings a song. When the Khant, having crossed the lowland, enters the forest again, he feels at ease, the Nenets feels constrained. On the way, the Nenets watches himself as if from the sky, imagining himself as a moving dot on the map. Hunt notices a tree and heads towards it, then notices a cape and moves towards it, he remembers every bump on his land. If a Nenets's boat motor breaks down, he sits in front of it and mentally unscrews the nuts. Having completed them in his head, he uses his hands. Hunt immediately begins to unscrew the nuts with his hands, his hands themselves remember the motor” (Golovnev, 1995: 262).
Conclusion
The mentality of the Urals, no matter what properties researchers attribute to it - landscape, natural, national or mythological - is distinguished by colossal diversity. Ten ethnic groups. Symmetrical river basins in the west (Parma) and east (Ugra). Opposite conditions of the “cold-heat” opposition in the Polar and Southern Belts. All this makes it difficult even to develop just one line of thought about national character, rooted in the ideas of the French Enlightenment with its interconnection between landscape and character. A complex landscape configuration will also mean a complex selection of character traits. But besides this, there are other difficulties.
At the first stage, the thinking of the Urals was studied in Imperial Russia as a foreign tradition, with the help descriptive method with a very strong bias towards fanciful and out-of-the-ordinary cases, mainly those that occurred in the course of some crimes, litigation, and divorce proceedings. This could not but affect the nature of the descriptions of national characters themselves.
At the second stage, in the Soviet Union, discrimination against small nations disappeared. Research has acquired a completely different subjectivity. The youngest people in the world of literature and their own national intelligentsia appeared. The character of the people is now assessed from her position, but at the same time the people themselves begin to divide. First of all, on urban and rural population, on people living traditionally, and on people adhering to a modern urban worldview. Distinctive feature there was also a focus on economic life people, which was combined with the closeness of the topic of spiritual traditions.
At the third stage, in the Russian Federation, ideas and concepts arose in which the mentality of the peoples of the Urals ceases to be perceived only in the context of Western scientific discourse. The root idea is developed by writers - experts in their languages, Russian writers - experts on places, customs and traditions, as well as people who know these traditions from the inside. During the third stage of studying the Ural mentality, both the “foreign” bias of the first stage and the closed spiritual themes of the second stage were dialectically removed. One can observe a significant diversity of approaches, opinions, interpretations of thinking, mentalities, knowledge and traditions of the Urals.
Thus, in general, despite all the inconsistency of the descriptions themselves, one can note among the Ural people such character qualities as resourcefulness, intelligence, and cunning. Hard work, kindness, respect. Negative qualities include stubbornness, sullenness, and isolation. Drunkenness is one of the bad habits.
Udmurts are smart but reserved, Komi are smart and open. All nations are distinguished by entrepreneurship. The Bashkirs have a deviation towards contemplation, stemming from a nomadic worldview. Among the Udmurts - towards isolation, stemming from the forest worldview.
The ability to control oneself is characteristic of the Nenets; it grows out of the patience and contemplation of the polar nomads. Contemplation comes into play here overall quality with the Bashkirs.
The Khanty are characterized by a very complex system of clan identification, and here they are close to the Bashkirs, who concentrate on keeping family chronicles in Shazhere. Only the Khanty always did this in oral tradition.
Mansi can shy away from the personal, going into the so-called “ inner man”, but are active in public. This social initiative brings them closer to the Komi, Nenets, and sometimes shares with the Udmurts, who can often be for themselves.
Russian craftsmen in the Urals developed not only many ores and mines, but also developed the very concept of craftsmanship. The Russians were ready to transform the Urals, but they were also ready to change themselves in accordance with it (Ivanov, 2011).
REFERENCES
Boronoev, A. O. (2007) Territorial mentality and problems of socio-cultural development of the region // Siberian mentality and problems of socio-cultural development of the region. SPb.: Asterion.
Interaction of ethnic groups in the Southern Urals: Comprehensive ethnological and anthropological studies (2006) Ufa: Eastern University.
In the Zyryansky region (Based on materials from Russian periodicals XIX - early XX centuries) (2011) Syktyvkar: Anbur LLC.
Golovnev A. V. (1995) Speaking cultures: traditions of Samoyeds and Ugrians. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Donskoy, F. S., Robbek, V. A., Sheikin, Yu. N. (2003) Integration of indigenous small peoples of the North and Far East into all-Russian culture. Yakutsk: YaF Publishing House SB RAS.
Zyryans and the Zyryan region in literary documents of the 19th century (2010) Syktyvkar: Kola Publishing House LLC.
Ivanov, A. (2011) The Ridge of Russia. SPb.: ABC, ABC-Atticus.
Kurguzov, V. L. (2007) Theoretical aspects of mentality and the meaning of existence // Siberian mentality and problems of sociocultural development of the region. SPb.: Asterion.
Lobova, V. A. (2010) Psychological well-being personalities in the population of northern ethnic groups. Khanty-Mansiysk: IIC SSU.
Mazin, V. A. (2004) The intrinsic value of nature in the culture of the Ob Ugrians. Nizhnevartovsk: NPI Publishing House.
Popkov, Yu. V., Tyugashev, E. A. (2006) Philosophy of the North: indigenous small peoples North in world order scenarios. Salekhard; Novosibirsk: Siberian Scientific Publishing House.
Pundani, V.V. (2009) Historical psychology of the Ural-Siberian society. Kurgan: Publishing house of Kurgan State University.
Traditional normative culture, organization of power and economy of the peoples of Northern Eurasia and the Far East (2000) M.: Stary Sad.
Shklyaev, G. K. (2003) Essays on the ethnic psychology of the Udmurts. Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Yamaeva, L. A. (2010) The mentality of the Bashkirs: features of the national character // National and linguistic processes in the Republic of Bashkortostan: history and modernity: Information and analytical bulletin No. 11 / IGI AN RB. - Ufa.
Professor of Ural federal university, Doctor of Philosophy Tatiana Kruglova believes that no one can be born in the Middle Urals Nyusha, neither Stas Mikhailov. Our fellow countrymen are singers of different states, and the Ural character is anti-glamor. The scientist made these conclusions after studying creativity. Bazhov, Ryzhego, Shakhrina And Carols. Tatyana Kruglova’s homeland is Sverdlovsk, and the scientist considers the clumsy features of the Ural character to be inherent, including in herself.
— Why did you look for signs of the Ural character from these authors? We have others too!
“They lived in a different time than Bazhov, but they are all united by some kind of kinship with the author of Ural fairy tales. I called it next. I took figures that gained fame not only in the Urals, but also in Russia and in the world. These are the geniuses that our land gave birth to.
- But all the specifics of the Urals did not fit into Bazhov’s tales - we have both Old Believers and Tatars, whom he did not talk about...
— Yes, it is impossible to explain everything Ural to Bazhov, but in the analysis I traced only one vector. In the works of these authors there is a certain identity of characters, which can be metaphorically called the “Ural breed”. I say “breed” because this word is related to both the Urals and Bazhov’s work: in the meaning “ rock“is the material from which minerals are extracted, and “breed” is the variety, type of people.
Call my work research comparative analysis it is forbidden. I used metaphors, but this is not at all scientific concept. Moreover, the world that Bazhov wrote about is a thing of the past.
Today, “people from the Urals” is a stereotype that exists in Russia. It evokes in people's minds masks and images based on certain experiences. And if we talk about the Urals, then this experience is largely connected with Bazhov’s tales, Shakhrin’s songs, Ryzhey’s poetry and Kolyada’s plays. Red was called the “singer of Vtorchermet.” He wrote about the atmosphere of the place in which he lived, about the people he knew. Likewise, in Kolyada’s plays, especially the early ones, there are details of our everyday life. People who do not live in the Urals find dark, crude motifs of death and destruction in their work.
- But there is a lot of light in the Ural tales!
— In Bazhov, justice triumphs, the main characters receive gifts, but do not find happiness. The creativity of the masters that Bazhov talks about takes away their strength, but in the mythology of farmers and livestock breeders, Mother Earth, on the contrary, gives them to people.
In the world of brilliant Ural figures, melancholy, rootlessness, and restlessness prevail. This is natural - people came to the Urals not of their own free will. Persecuted Old Believers settled here, convicts and workers were brought here to factories. The Urals were not serfs, but they were not masters of their labor either. Danila the master created the cup, and it was taken away. And the drawings were given to the masters ready-made. The very nature of the work was forced and joyless, the heroes of Bazhov’s tales died of consumption - the work exhausted them.
I can draw a parallel with the landscapes of the famous Ural artist Nikolai Burak. Nature in his paintings has a strange beauty - it is gloomy, as if shrouded in haze, the colors are dim. And to see this beauty, you have to look closely: just like a master finds the beauty of a future vase in a nondescript stone. Beauty is hidden behind the inconspicuousness and clumsiness of the breed.
- This is the Ural character - can you fall in love with its beauty just by looking closely at it?
- His clumsiness is unpresentable. Nikolai Kolyada says with all his creativity: beauty is in authenticity, and not in the wrapper, which is why his aesthetics are called “garbage”. We are not born with a sense of enthusiasm and excitement. Remember, from Shakhrin: “We breathe in the free wind from the stinking river”? Our area consistently produces a creative world of such motifs.
Let's see what exactly we show to visitors? We show visitors the place where the Tsar was executed - now the Church on the Blood and Ganina Yama - a monastery founded in memory of his burial. So why are we proud of death?
However, our million-plus city has always been distinguished by its industriousness - industry is concentrated here. We have always had a record number of universities for the USSR, many theaters, and we live a cultural, intellectually meaningful life. But for some reason we don’t love our city!
- Why don’t we love you?
“I like living here, I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.” But it is absolutely impossible to love this constant dirt of ours, broken roads, endless puddles at the entrance! Just as people once gathered here against their own will, so we live without trying to make our place of residence more convenient. The Ural capital was built in order to serve production, for global state purposes, and not for the life of a small person. My gaze as a researcher is directed to the past. And you know, I like Shakhrin, and Kolyada, and Ryzhiy - no less than Bazhov. They are ours, from the Urals, I am ready to be proud of them. Perhaps it will be different in the future. I hope that figures like Nyusha or Stas Mikhailov could not be born on our land, and will not be able to in the future.
Or rather, the Yekaterinburg-Nizhny Tagil mentality of the inhabitants of the current Sverdlovsk region.
Even more accurate, of course, is my idea of him.
Some preamble for understanding:
1. The Ural mentality exists. In other words, there are some character traits, some features of the value system, behavior inherent in the Urals (I mean Russian Urals), which distinguish them from Russians living in other regions of Russia.
This is the impression I got from having lived the first half of my life in Sverdlovsk and the towns and villages of the Sverdlovsk region, and the second in Moscow and its environs, having more or less close contact with residents and natives of St. Petersburg, Rostov, Tula, Saratov, and so on.
2. The Urals are not Siberia, a Uralian is not a Siberian. I would not focus on this rather trivial fact, if not for some reason the idea that is often encountered especially among St. Petersburg and Muscovites is that the Urals are part of Siberia, and the Urals are a “species” of Siberians.
This is wrong. S. and U. have significantly different histories, circumstances of settlement, order of government for hundreds of years, which left a significant imprint on the character and idea of the world of the Urals and Siberians (I understand that Siberians are also different). They even talk about a certain separate and completely special “mining civilization” that existed in these parts from the late Peter the Great (Tatishchev’s time) until approximately until the abolition of serfdom, that is, more than one and a half hundred years. There were differences in the Soviet period as well.
3. On average in Russia, 15% of the population is employed in agriculture, in the Middle Urals - about 6%. The Urals is a city. A city in the Urals is a factory.
Middle Urals- this is a factory.
4. People mostly moved to the Urals by force or very forcedly.
The ancestors of the current Urals -
working people from state-owned factories and Demidov factories, brought here against their will from central Russia,
convicts, exiles, escapees from several centuries of tsarist rule, who settled in these parts, considering this choice better than returning to their homeland,
repressed and exiled from the Stalin era,
workers shock construction projects, many of whom were driven there not by enthusiasm, but by need,
evacuated from the south and center of the country during the war.
much less numerous, but who left their very significant imprint on the history, legends, customs, worldview of the Urals - Old Believers who fled from the unrighteous Church and the authorities “for the Stone”, descendants of local aborigines (Voguls, Bashkirs, etc.), Polish exiles, “generally” German (including Dutch, Swedish and other overseas) mining engineers and specialists and others.
It definitely left its mark on the mentality.
5. In my opinion, an important circumstance for understanding the mentality of the inhabitants of the Middle Urals is that despite the very heterogeneous origin of the population, this is an essentially mono-ethnic region. Here 90% consider and call themselves Russians, although, perhaps, their ancestors, in fact, had nothing at all of Russian blood. The plant crushed everything.
Actually, traits of the Ural character and mentality.
1. A Uralian is reserved, often almost to the point of gloominess. But this is hardly phlegmatic restraint. Often a Ural resident is a gloomy melancholic person. This may also be due to the fact that, contrary to popular belief, Ural residents, as a rule, are not in excellent health. The plant is not a resort, nor is it the Siberian taiga, which, if it doesn’t kill you, makes you a hero.
2. At the same time, the Uralian is hardy. The Urals are harsh, the climate is sharply continental. Winter is cold and long, summer is short, autumn and spring are also short and slushy. Well, working at a factory is not conducive to relaxation.
3. Uralian is patient. Again, due to the climate, due to factory work, due to other reasons happy life. Moreover, the Urals had nowhere to run. It would seem that here it is at sunrise - Siberia - I don’t want to run. But the Ural man is a factory worker and doesn’t know how to plow. All you have to do is endure and love your plant.
4. Paradoxically, the Urals are rather statists. Or maybe not paradoxical. The Middle Urals, historically, is a state plant, or a plant working under government orders. The factory workers were always aware of this; they might not like the state, but they understood that they were tightly connected with it.
During Pugachev uprising Yekaterinburg factory workers fought with the rebels. They did not fight under pressure.
5. A Uralian is a patriot. Both the Urals and Russia. From childhood, he learns that his region has been forging the shield and sword of the Motherland from time immemorial. This knowledge, on the one hand, fills him with pride for his land, on the other, it completely makes any separatism meaningless. The Urals may have a positive attitude towards some kind of independence, the autonomy of the Urals, “themselves”. But if someone proposed the idea of complete independence, “the boys won’t understand.”
6. For a Ural resident, involvement in some very important important matter. Apparently, this was initially connected with the same work at a factory producing strategic metal or even weapons themselves. The Ural resident had no other business of his own except his plant.
7. For the same reason, for a Ural resident, this matter may be more important than a personal matter, even life itself. And for the sake of this common cause, he is ready to tear his navel and even go to his death, without really thinking (I emphasize that I am not trying to idealize this quality in any way; perhaps, such self-denial is not necessarily always a good thing).
8. It’s probably very controversial, but in my opinion, the influence of the Ural merchants on the mentality of the Ural people turned out to be quite weak. In Soviet times, the traditions of the merchants were pretty much destroyed along with their bearers.
9. Justice is very important for Ural residents. Moreover, it is more important than freedom. Perhaps the fact is that freedom was incomprehensible to the factory worker. He didn’t know what to do with her (well, let the steelworker go - where will he go?) The desire for justice was replaced by the desire for freedom. Fairness in remuneration, respect for his human dignity, fair assessment of his professionalism, dedication common cause etc.
10. A Uralian, alas (?), is not very tolerant, not very tolerant of other people's opinions. Here, the relative ethnic homogeneity probably played a role, and the fact that “it’s at least three years away from any border,” and the fact that the plant, in principle, is not inclined to tolerate “oddities.”
Something like this.
Maybe I made a mistake or forgot something important. In this case, add it.
Maybe at all - everything written above is nonsense from beginning to end. In that case, correct it.
We have all heard the ironic expression more than once: “Are you from the Urals?” Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor, Professor of the Ural Federal University Tatyana Kruglova conducted a whole study and found out who he is, this “man from the Urals”, and why this expression often hides something “provincial” and very offensive for the residents of Yekaterinburg and other Ural cities. She looked for examples in the works of people with whom many Russian residents associate the Urals: Pavel Bazhov, Boris Ryzhy, Nikolai Kolyada and Vladimir Shakhrin. The portal site attended Tatyana Kruglova’s lecture “The Clumsy Ural Breed” at the NCCA and recorded for you the main points of her speech.
Shakhrin - a simple guy from the Urals
The expression “Are you from the Urals?” always implies very simple people. The concept of simplicity is more firmly established in the Urals than in residents of other regions. For example, Siberians stand for strength, reliability, and masculinity. The Urals are characterized by simplicity, unpretentiousness, necessarily provincialism and outdatedness. But, please note, there is something harmless in this simplicity: awkwardness, lack of secular polish and education. This cannot be proven by any sociological measurements. But this opinion is often played out quite dramatically and seriously by Ural cultural figures. Starting with the works of Pavel Bazhov, who shows the life of ordinary Ural people, workers, artisans, ordinary residents The Urals in general, and ending with the songs of our beloved Vladimir Shakhrin, who very actively supports this image of a simple guy from the Urals for more than 30 years.
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Why are the Urals people ashamed of themselves?
Residents of other cities do not hide their love for home place, to your small homeland. This applies to people living, for example, in Yaroslavl, in Arzamas, to say nothing of St. Petersburg and Muscovites! There are places that people love and about which writers, poets, and musicians have written the most wonderful words: Bulgakov madly loved Kyiv, Fazil Iskander, with tenderness blooming on his lips, spoke about his native Abkhazia... This practically does not happen with the Urals. At the same time, there are many people who are certainly attached to this place and connect themselves and their lives with it. But they never say words of love about him.
We lead foreigners and residents of other countries with a certain bashfulness. Russian cities in Yekaterinburg. Even as we talk enthusiastically, we feel a little embarrassed: it’s like, “What’s so unusual here?” Despite the fact that our city is far from the most bad place on Earth (we do not have the worst climate, and the degree of comfort is much higher than the Russian average), a strange complex still remains. Love here is difficult and often mixed with negativity and rejection.
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Bazhovsky trace
Who inhabits Bazhov's world? People who gnaw into the bowels of the earth, like moles who dig tunnels, there is little heroism in their activities. Bazhov created a world of other Russians. He moved away from the Russian myth, Platon Karataev, Ivan the Fool and other traditional concepts about the Russian peasant. The Ural master he created is not at all the Russian man we know from other works.
The rather conventional and fantastic world created by Bazhov, and the trace he left with this world, gave rise to many responses and variations. Boris Ryzhy, Nikolai Kolyada, Vladimir Shakhrin - none of them addressed Bazhov’s theme directly, but you can see a trace of his work.
Indeed, if we are talking about Kolyada, having collected all the opinions with “garbage aesthetics”, “junk shop” and the like, the word “clumsy” refers to it. The first reaction to the poems and world of Boris Ryzhy is also the fruit of a certain “clumsiness,” namely, the lack of classical proportions, harmony between the elements in this world, the lack of solid, reliable support.
The most important thing is that behind the “clumsiness”, under the apparent simplicity, there is a certain complex system. It also means something unfinished, raw and unprocessed, because the master takes the “clumsy” breed and knows how to discern in it the future beautiful product. You just need to see him.
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There is no happiness and harmony in the Urals
Despite all the dubiousness of generalizations, one cannot help but notice that Ural land did not produce anything “positive” or “cheerful”. All admirers and critics of the work of Ryzhy and Kolyada always emphasize that there is no happiness, peace and harmony in their world. In Bazhov’s world, justice is established in the finale, but the heroes through whom this happens are not happy.
Mountain mythology is very rare and, on the one hand, should be an image of something strong and reliable. At the same time, in the world of Bazhov, Kolyada and Ryzhiy there is always instability, people have no ground under their feet, they are constantly in a state of creative restlessness. These motifs are often accompanied by a huge saturation of death images.
The poems of Boris Ryzhy are almost an encyclopedia of funerary images. In Kolyada’s dramaturgy we constantly see a certain grave, and the moment with a corpse often becomes highest voltage actions. Death is the other side of life, without which heroes cannot live.
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In mountain mythology it is written that craftsmen are forbidden to be happy, they are doomed and pay with their misfortune for the work they extract from the bowels of the earth. If in agricultural cults they draw energy from the bosom of Mother Earth and are reborn, then in mountain mythology all the masters, biting into the bowels of the earth, on the contrary, give energy to it, so they do not live long, “hesitate,” as Bazhov wrote, and die. This breed is built with lethal beginnings.
The Urals are short
Boris Ryzhy plays short all the time: it is difficult to recognize direct quotes from Lermontov, Brodsky, Lugovoy in a deliberately reduced form. Red created for himself a certain image of a simple boy from Vtorchermet, a little “rich”, with scandals, with stabbings, fights, obscene language, who is friends with the public from the lower social classes, writes about them...
This deceitfulness is very important thing. Like Kolyada: love for the marginalized, the homeless, prostitutes, beggars... But at the same time, in his carefully thought-out scenography, musical design, and in the entire concept of a multi-layered performance, we find a powerful cultural pie, a colossal education of endless references, reminiscences and echoes. This is hidden cultural education, bookishness, playing at simplicity.
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The world of Kolyada is hiddenly sentimental, and in some places sentimentality breaks through beyond all barriers, sometimes almost beyond aesthetic taste. This same gentle, piercing note accompanies all of Red’s poems. In Bazhov's world there is no sentimentality; there are other bonds. And in the world of the 90s, which accounted for the work of all the authors described, sentimentality turns out to be unsupported. She is extremely dramatic, very serious and completely devoid of irony.
