10.01.2022, Moscow.
The Soviet empire’s collapse exposed civilizations around whose borders conflicts are unfolding, political scientist and philosopher Sergey Kurginyan said in the installment of The Meaning of the Game program about the events in Kazakhstan. The episode was published on January 8 on YouTube.
“The empire collapsed. And as soon as such great empires collapse, not only trivial nationalism but also ‘civilizationism’ begins to breathe first of all”. The first thing that is exposed when an empire collapses, is civilizations,” Kurginyan stressed.
He explained that civilizations are stable communities, united by religious meaning and the culture defined by this meaning. According to Kurginyan, civilizations, when exposed, cannot avoid displaying so-called civilizational seams or their natural boundaries. The political scientist stressed that this is an objective process that is beyond the power of political figures or elites.
“These objective civilizational seams began to show themselves in the post-Soviet space in the period after the collapse of the empire, and especially sharply after 2000. What is happening in Kazakhstan may have a great number of reasons. But the same civilization seam that is being exposed in Ukraine or Belarus is being exposed there as well,” Kurginyan explained.
He reminded that the concept of relationships between an empire a civilization was once very popular. According to Kurginyan, its idea is associated with the names of Nikolai Danilevsky, Arnold Toynbee and Oswald Spengler. It was later picked up by Samuel Huntington.
The political scientist is convinced that this concept describes reality very well, and this is especially evident in the processes taking place on the ruins of the Soviet empire. Kurginyan stresses that the concept explains objective tectonic processes, which do not depend on specific reasons that led to the situation destabilizing in a particular state, which used to be a part of the USSR.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
