Zheleznyakov A.S., Nikiforov S.V. A Role of Buddhism in the Shaping of Common Outposts for Russian and Mongolian Civilizations. Oriental Studies. 2024;17(5):1021-1036. (In Russ.) https: ...

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Abstract

Introduction. Russia’s Buddhist regions historically belonging to both the Russian and Mongolian civilizations are an attractive object for civilizational analysis in a variety of social sciences. Nonetheless, despite the ever-increasing role of civilizational processes in the context of the emerging and developing polycentric world order of civilization-states, scarce are studies united by a complex metascientific concept that would systematize the available empirical and theoretical information. Goals. Thus, the article attempts such research and seeks to identify the role of the Buddhist factor in the development of cross-civilizational relations in Russia through the examples of three common outposts of Russian and Mongolian civilizations — Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia. The paper examines the significance of the Buddhist factor in sociocultural and political spheres of Buryatia and partly Transbaikalia, Tuva (Tyva), and Kalmykia. Materials and methods. The theoretical and methodological apparatus of the research rests on a new scientific approach — civilizational political science which considers civilizational and political processes within a stereoscopic worldview that separates political and civilizational spaces, and implies the use of an interdisciplinary research toolkit and a metascientific level of its theoretical understanding. To facilitate these, the work shall use a variety of materials, such as past and present political and legal acts from national and regional levels, media reports, statements by politicians, public and spiritual figures, data from sociological surveys, as well as special scientific investigations analyzing the mentioned sources. Results. The study suggests that the role of the religious factor — and, in particular, that of Buddhism — is significant in political and civilizational processes across the common outposts of the Russian and Mongolian civilizations throughout the territory of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, it serves as a substrate of civilizational identity, along with ethnic, cultural, confessional, linguistic ones, and factors of surrounding landscapes and commonality of historical destiny. Conclusions. Despite the importance of the civilizational factor for the examined regions, current national policies give priority to the concept of ‘political nation’ rather than that of ‘civilization-state’, which reduces somewhat due consideration of the confessional and ethnocultural diversity across the outposts, and hampers the fulfillment of their potentials in favor of development at both regional and national levels.