Cross-cultural compositions for landscape contact zones of civilization connections

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Cross-cultural compositions for landscape contact zones of civilization connections¹

Intercultural contacts on the Eurasian subcontinent were provided by the infrastructure of contact zones and synthetic contact zones. Contact zones arose when two cultures met in a local space. This phenomenon was described by V.A. Arutyunova-Fidanyan [1], on the example of the synergy of the Armenian and Byzantine cultures. The synthetic contact zone of culture is formed by the intercultural logistics of several cultural contact zones. This logistics usually coincides with the transcontinental logistics of information and commodity flows.

Historical and cultural analysis shows that when cultures came into contact, cross-cultural compositions of the landscape of mutual influences were formed. The conquests, except the brutality of the Assyrians, were not accompanied by the destruction of local cultures. Rather, an environment of coexistence of alien and local cultures emerged. Similar patterns of behavior in Europe and Asia were demonstrated by the Greeks, Macedonians, and Romans. The cultural contact zones in Eurasia were coordinated by the logistics of the Great Silk Road. The nomadic Arab tribes also came to realize the importance of cultural contact zones. Through Spain and Venice, they created a contact zone for the transmission of cultural meanings to the zone of Christian culture. From the vast region of Greater Eurasia, we chose Belarus to study trends in cross-cultural communications, on whose territory a zone of confrontation and dialogue between Western and Eurasian civilizations was established in the Middle Ages. Within the historical length of eight hundred years, we have singled out five cross-cultural compositions of the Belarusian landscape to test the hypothesis about the strengthening of the influence of the crisis public consciousness of European culture on the tendency to replace the dialogue of cultures with the confrontation of cultures. This will substantiate the thesis of the continuing dehumanization of Western European culture.

The first cross-cultural composition of the Belarusian landscape was formed in the Middle Ages thanks to the trade routes of the Hansa, the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which opened the way of contact within Belarus of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant cultures. This was the era of the Renaissance and the Reformation.

The intellectual culture of Belarus turned out to be integrated into the European processes associated with the institutional crisis of the Catholic Church. There was a search for the modernization of this church. They were initiated by professors from universities in England professor of the University of Cambridge J. Wycliffe. Natives of the Slavic states studied at this university. Among them were the natives of the Czech Republic and Belarus. The influence of J. Wycliffe in the Czech Republic was expressed in the sermons of J. Hus, whose execution marked the beginning of the Hussite wars. His colleague I. Prazhsky visited the territory of Belarus and preached the teachings of the Hussites.

Of the natives of Belarus, Y. Litvin showed himself in London. He opened a printing press in 1480, where he published not only religious texts but also the works of Aristotle. Among the books he published are «Reflections on the XII Books of Aristotle’s Metaphysics». In the XIV-XVI centuries, a model of university education for Belarusian youth was formed. They finished their bachelor’s degrees at the University of Krakow. Then they completed their studies at other universities in Europe.

Printing is an important source of information on the intellectual migration of the natives of Belarus the civilization of the medieval West. It has become a meeting place for representatives of European cultures. Belarusians opened printing houses in different cities of Europe. Their publications became the main documents of their identification. An analysis of the printing activity of the natives of Belarus showed that they published books in close contact with German, Czech, Italian, and British masters. F. Skorina gave an example of such intercultural activity. He was educated at the Universities of Krakow and Padua. He worked in many European cities in Prague as well [2]. The intellectual migration of the natives of Belarus within Europe was facilitated by the special status of cities, which had the institutional basis of the Magdeburg Law. Canonical law gave way to natural law. Humanism became an important foundation of natural law in the categories of Roman jurisprudence. Through these categories, the socio-political teachings of the thinkers of antiquity about society, the state were transmitted, first, references were made to Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius.

Magdeburg Law came to Eastern Europe with German merchants in the XIII-XIV centuries. It was city law, which provided guarantees of self-government to large settlements. Saxony became the place of its formation. Here a system of law was developed under the name «Saxon Mirror». At the city level, statutes were in effect. The charter of the city of Magdeburg gave rise to the Magdeburg Law. This right has become widespread due to the principles of self-organization of local structures formulated in it. This right has become widespread due to the principles of self-organization of local structures formulated in it. F. Skorina, N. Gusovsky, S. Budny, A. Volan, M. Litvin, L. Sapega contributed to the development of legal documents.

The dominance of natural law turned out to be important for Belarus in the conditions of active contact in the space of its spiritual culture of different religious traditions. The Belarusian society adhered to Christianity, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Together with the Tatars’ communities, Islam began to be cultivated in Belarusian cities.

To replenish the treasury of Belarusian cities, the authorities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania granted permission to move Jewish communities from Germany. The first written mention of Jews on the territory of modern Belarus is the letter of 1383 by Prince Vitovt to Brest Jews about granting them special privileges. In the 14th and 15th centuries, there was a massive migration of Jews from German cities to Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Communities resettled, bringing capital to Belarus, age-old trading habits, legal system, German-Jewish dialect (Yiddish), religious traditions, and the Talmudic education system. Old Believers from the Moscow state also received a residence permit within Belarus. Their communities are in the region of eastern and northeastern Belarus.

On the territory of Belarus, within the framework of Christianity, not only Orthodox, Catholics, but also various Protestant communities began to coexist. The spread and growth of the influence of Protestant communities in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were facilitated by N. Radziwill, who corresponded with J. Calvin. As a result, with his financial support, Calvinist communities became widespread. Prayer houses were built educational institutions and printing houses were opened. Representatives of intellectual culture were involved in the activities of the communities.

Among these representatives was S. Budny. At the invitation of N. Radziwill, he organized a printing house in Nesvizh, where he began to publish Bible texts in Belarusian and Polish. In 1565, the GDL Calvinists received equal rights with Catholics and Orthodox. In 1573, the right to choose a religion was legislated. The corresponding article was spelled out in the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1588.

The Calvinists’ initiatives in the field of state law of the GDL created for them not only guarantees of equal rights but also went beyond the boundaries of the interests of their community. On the territory of Belarus, other Protestant communities began to enjoy the legally enshrined right of tolerance. Polemic discussions arose between representatives of these communities. The controversy was conducted peacefully. It did not lead, as in France, to the confrontation of religious communities.

The controversy initiated by S. Budny continued within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for several decades. Its members have become well-known controversial authors. They were joined by S. Ostrovsky and M. Smigletsky [3]. The discussions revealed the talent of many participants for the practical implementation of the ideas expressed about the role of religion in society.

Among them was A. Volovich. From Orthodoxy, he switched to Protestantism. He served as chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He participated in the development of the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1566. The books by S. Budny and A. Bullinger were published with his money. Calvinism was identified by him as the distinctive religion of the ON. Therefore, he led a decisive polemic with the supporters of the Union of Lublin, which assumed the close integration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Catholic Poland. A similar position was adhered to by J. Abramovich, who held high government positions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Under the influence of his wife, who belonged to the Orthodox Church, he maintained tolerance and religious tolerance. He had diversified interests in the field of science and literature. Y. Glebovich, who headed the city authorities of Minsk, contributed to the development of the city and Protestant communities. On his initiative, the Trinity and the Castle suburb were built. A large Calvinist community was formed. A printing house was opened, in which books by D. Lenchitsky and S. Budny wаr were published.

Y.L. Namyslovsky played an important role in the formation of the Arian schools in Ivye, Novogrudok. He supported the activities of S. Budny. He became famous for his polemics with M. Smigletskiy, a prominent representative of the second scholasticism within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The discussion took place in 1594. As a result of the discussion, Y. Namyslovsky published the books «Anatomy and Harmony of a Christian Man», «A Textbook for Mastering the Teachings of Aristotle.» They were published in 1596. The theologian from the Netherlands F. Junius reacted to these works. A. Volan demonstrated a high level of polemics with opponents. He was a supporter of Calvinism. He was the secretary of the kings Sigismund Augustus, S. Batory, S. Vasa. His works are devoted to issues of state law. In matters of religion, he led a polemic with the supporter of the second scholasticism P. Skarga. There were no conflicts between Protestant communities and Orthodox brotherhoods.

The first cross-cultural composition of the Belarusian landscape gave way to the second cross-cultural composition, created by the phenomena of the Counter-Reformation and the second scholasticism. The Vatican has launched a strategy for the transition of the upper strata of Belarusian society to Catholicism. It was supposed to subordinate the Orthodox brotherhoods on the territory of Belarus to the Vatican, which was done in 1595 following the conclusion of the church union. But there were Orthodox brotherhoods that did not accept the model of the Greek Catholic Church. They began to focus on the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, which was viewed by the authorities of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an instrument of influence of the Moscow state on the Orthodox population for political purposes. In these conditions, it was difficult for representatives of the intellectual part of the Orthodox brotherhoods to avoid suspicions of espionage and undermining the state security of the confederation of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A. Filippovich found himself in a similar situation of suspicion. S. Polotsky left Belarus and continued his intellectual activity in the Moscow state.

As the Counter-Reformation intensified, representatives of intellectual thought who adhered to Calvinism left Belarus. After the transition of influential families of Belarus to the Catholic faith, printing houses ceased to be accessible to these people. They headed to the Netherlands. Among them were K. Semyanovich and I. Kopievich. In the Netherlands, K. Semyanovich became the author of a work entitled «The Great Art of Artillery». He adhered to the concept of Aristotle and empiricism. When interpreting the results of experimental research, he referred to the works of Aristotle, Plato, Seneca, Euclid, Archimedes, Apolloch of Pergamum. He used sources on medicine, natural history, agriculture, chemistry, technology, history. I. Kopievich opened a printing house in Amsterdam, where, at the request of Peter I, he translated into Russian and published books on maritime affairs and natural sciences.

The Counter-Reformation in Belarus was not accompanied by religious wars. She transformed into a phenomenon of the second scholasticism [4]. Catholic orders, including the Jesuits, adhered to the strategy of creating authority in civil society not by violence, but by forming an educational and cultural environment that would compete with the Calvinist communities and Orthodox brotherhoods in Belarus [5]. The infrastructure of this environment included collegiums, school theaters, which shaped the specifics of the Baroque era on the territory of Belarus.

In educational institutions, there was a tough discipline and at the same time a high level of study of subjects. In addition to theology, mathematics, ancient literature, logic, rhetoric, Latin and Greek, and ethics were studied. The structure of the collegiums included libraries and school theaters. 14 school theaters functioned on the territory of Belarus. The scripts for the performances were written by the teachers of the Jesuit collegiums. The teachers were trained by the Jesuit Academy of Vilna. It included theology and law faculties. In the Jesuit collegiums on the territory of Belarus were taught by immigrants from European countries – V. Bergof, A. Mishtalt, J. Preushof. Among local teachers A. Alizarovsky, L. Zalussky, M. Karsky, A. Koyalovich, S. Lauksmin, N. Lenchitsky, M. Sarbevsky, V. Tylkovsky became famous.

Collegiums functioned in almost all cities of Belarus – in Polotsk (since 1581), Nesvizh (since 1584), Brest, Orsha, Grodno, Pinsk. A total of 20 Jesuit collegiums functioned. PR collegiums were opened in Shchuchin, Voronovo, Zelva, Mogilev, Drogichin, Polotsk. Polotsk played an important role in the activities of the Jesuits. This was due to its geographic location.

In 1773 the Pope dissolved the Jesuit order. But after the annexation of the territory of Belarus to the Russian Empire in 1775, the order received the opportunity to work within Belarus. Catherine II strove to use the Jesuit order in political interests. She gave them the right to educational activities. Polotsk became the center of this activity. Alexander II adhered to a similar position about the Jesuits. He hoped for their support in the war with Napoleon. On January 12, 1812, he signed a decree granting the Polotsk Jesuit Collegium the status of an academy with the rights of a university. All Jesuit educational institutions were subordinate to the academy. However, the Jesuits did not live up to the hopes of the Russian authorities. They were ordered to leave the empire.

A phenomenon of the XVIII century became Haskala, which was generated within Belarus S. Maimon, who became a representative of German classical philosophy [6].

The third cross-cultural composition within the boundaries of the landscape of Belarus was created by the era of romanticism. He contributed to the development of musical culture («Belarusian Wedding», «Six Seasons» by A. Abramovich, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, nocturnes by A. Yelsky, F. Miladovsky, N. Orda).

The European context of Belarusian music is revealed in the biography of S. Monyushka. The composer was born in the Ubel estate near Minsk (now the Cherven district of the Minsk region). At the age of eight S. Moniuszko began his musical studies in Warsaw. He continued it in Minsk at the gymnasium, where he studied composition with D. Stefanovich. He completed his musical education in Berlin, at the Singing Academy. Here he mastered work with a choir and orchestra, got an idea of the operatic culture of Europe.

Among the students of S. Monyushko was the Russian composer C. Cui, a member of the «Mighty Handful». In 1858 S. Moniuszko was in Germany, France, Czech Republic. In Weimar, he met with F. List. In Warsaw, he took the position of chief conductor of the Belki Theater and became a professor at the Institute of Music. He taught classes in composition, harmony, and counterpoint. Among his students was the composer Z. Noskovsky. S. Moniuszko became the founder of the piano school. Wrote a harmony textbook. Performances with the author’s concerts in St. Petersburg introduced S. Monyushko to the circle of Russian composers. He was friends with M. Glinka and A. Dargomyzhsky.

Belarusian youth, carried away by the ideas of romanticism, was interested in folklore, nature, as well as cultures of other peoples. An important role was played by the lectures of Gottfried Ernst Groddeck, which he gave at the University of Vilnius. He received his education at the University of Göttingen. From 1804 he worked at the Department of Classical Philology at Vilnius University. He taught ancient Greek and Latin languages, ancient literature. In his lectures, he advised students to study oriental culture. The position of G.E. Groddeka was consonant with the general European trend in linguistics.

Comparative linguistics G.E. Groddek formed an interest in oriental culture among a native of Belarus O.I. Senkovsky [7]. He received his education at the Minsk Jesuit Collegium and the University of Vilna. After moving to St. Petersburg, he became the first professor of Arabic studies in the Russian Empire. In his lectures, he used the results of his trips to the Middle East. O. Kovalevsky, Y. Kopats, A. Mukhlinsky, A. Rafalovich, A. Golynsky, B. Grambchevsky, I. Chersky, M. Vronchenko, E. Pekarsky, I. Tetersky were influenced by the professor’s lectures.

Among the students of the University in Vilna was also O.M. Kovalevsky, exiled to Kazan and assigned to a local university to study oriental languages. He mastered the Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu, Chinese, Tibetan languages. He explored Tibet, Mongolia, and China [8]. He is the founder of the school of Mongolian studies. As a result of his stay in Tibet, he brought a large collection of manuscripts to Kazan. He wrote original scientific papers on Buddhist cosmology.

A. Yanushkevich played an important role in creating a dialogue between the Turkic peoples and the authorities of the Russian Empire. He was familiar with the father of Abai Kunanbayev. They talked constantly. A. Yanushkevich in the process of communication was holding one-year-old Abai in his arms. A. Yanushkevich is from Central Belarus, from Nesvizh. A. Yanushkevich highly appreciated the friendship with A. Mitskevich. He told Abai Kunanbayev’s father about this poet, as well as about other European poets.

A. Khodzko-Boreiko was a European orientalist. He was born on August 30, 1804, in the Krivichi estate (now the Myadel district of the Minsk region). A. Khodzko studied in Vilno, at the gymnasium, under the guidance of teacher T. Zahn. After graduating from high school in 1820, he entered the Faculty of Verbal Sciences and Free (or Fine) Arts at Vilna University. He was greatly influenced by the lectures of I. Level, G. Grodek, and I. Danilovich.

To study the culture of the East more deeply, A. Khodzko decided to move to St. Petersburg, where the best orientalist forces of Russia were concentrated. On January 7, 1827, Khodzko entered the Educational Department of Living Languages at the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Petersburg. The department trained translators of oriental languages for Russian missions in Iran and Turkey. His teacher was Mirza Jafar Topchibashev.

In 1829 a collection of poems and translations by A. Khodzko was published. The publication of the collection was responded to by the «Literaturnaya Gazeta», which was published by A.A. Delvig with the active participation of A. Pushkin. In 1830 A. Khodzko was appointed as a translator for the Russian mission in Iran.

The manuscripts collected by A. Khodzko and the records made by him on the ground formed the basis of most of his later scientific publications, among which the most interesting are works on linguistics, folklore, ethnography, theater, religion, as well as complex descriptions of individual territories [9]. In the collection, A. Khodzko published his records of the folk art of Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Nogays, Talysh, Iranians, Gilans, Mazandrans, Kalmyks. Keroglu is a Turkmen singer from the Teke clan, the hero of the legends of more than a dozen Turkic-speaking peoples of Asia. Orientalists studied primarily court-written literature. A. Khodzko was one of the first orientalists to introduce the folklore of the above peoples into the circle of scientific research.

A. Khodzko’s knowledge of the Turkic and Iranian languages, close communication with the inhabitants of Iran contributed to the fact that the researcher carried out adequate translations of the Turkmen, Azerbaijani, Persian and other samples of poetry into European languages. Most of the folklore texts included in the London collection have been republished in other languages as well. The Adventures and Improvisations of Koroglu have been translated into French twice by Georges Sand and Adolphe Brelier. They came out as a separate edition in German in the translation of O. Wolf, as well as in the Russian translation of S. Penn.

A. Khodzko attached particular importance to the work of the classic Turkmen poetry of the 18th century. Makhtumkuli. The researcher called him the most popular poet not only in Turkmenistan but also in Khorasan. A. Khodzko gave a short biography of Makhtumkuli and emphasized that the poet devoted most of his time to philosophy and poetry.

The value of this publication lies in the fact that it appeared twelve years after the first publication of the poet’s legacy in the European language in general, and twenty years earlier than the first publication of Makhtumkuli’s poems in Russian translation, which was made known until that time, by F. Bakulin. Thanks to the work of A. Khodzko, not only Western European but also Russian readers could familiarize themselves with the poetic heritage of the great Turkmen poet long before what was.

One of the first researchers A. Khodzko drew attention to the Persian theatrical performances «theazie» and published five texts of these plays. Most of A. Khodzko’s works are rich in primary material collected by the researcher at the places of his long stay because of his constant contact with the local population. This is the main value of the works of the orientalist.

A. Khodzko’s activities contributed to the formation of humane ideas about the peoples of the Middle East among his contemporaries. His works contributed to the development of folklore and ethnography of the peoples of the Caspian region. He became the popularizer of the work of the outstanding Azerbaijani writer Mirza Fatali Akhundov.

Another explorer of the East was A.O. Mukhlinsky. By origin from the Belarusian Tatars, an expert in the field of Turkic linguistics and literature. His research interests included the history of Islam within the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A.O. Mukhlinsky is the founder of scientific Turkology at St. Petersburg University. He was the founder of a specialized department of Turkish, later Turkish-Tatar, literature (literature of the Volga and Crimean Tatars). He taught the students courses in Arabic, Turkish languages, as well as the history and geography of the East and the history of the Ottoman Empire.

From 1832 to 1836 he was sent to the Ottoman Empire; trained in Ottoman Egypt, at the famous university at the Cairo mosque al-Azhar, founded in 972, from where he brought out several manuscripts, including a work by the Persian mathematician and astronomer Ahmad al-Katib. A.O. Mukhlinsky actively published in the «Library for Reading» Arabist, writer, and publicist O.I. Senkovsky, in the «Encyclopedic Dictionary» 1861.

A researcher of the Middle East within the framework of the spiritual names of the Vatican was M. Ryllo, a native of the Grodno province. After the closure of the Jesuit Academy in Polotsk and the ban on the activities of the Jesuit order, he went to the Vatican, where he has delegated the authority to represent the Catholic Church in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa. M. Ryllo was among the first Europeans to visit and describe Babylon. He opened educational institutions for Christians in the Middle East. His subsequent spiritual activities took place on the territory of Sudan.

K. Kossovich, who became a famous Sanskritologist, Iranianist, Semitologist, came from Polotsk. He spoke Greek, Arabic, Hebrew. He educated at the Moscow State University in the language department. His brother, I. Kossovich, studied the Avestan language and translated the Avesta into Latin. He worked at the University of St. Petersburg. His interests included Greek and Roman literature.

A. Makovelsky comes from the Belarusian city of Grodno. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he was sent by the University of Kazan to Berlin to study sources on ancient philosophy. The subject of his scientific research was pre-Socratics. In Berlin, he communicated with representatives of German cultural philosophy.

The fourth cross-cultural composition within the landscape of Belarus was created by the modern era. Vitebsk and Minsk stood out for their creative atmosphere. By the 19th century, they had become major centers of contemporary art. In Vitebsk, the creative laboratory was in the central part of the city limits. Minsk was characterized by a wide variety of use of the creative resources of the cultural space.

Vitebsk, limited by the city limits, found itself at the mercy of the European evolution of art. I. Repin played a huge role in the actualization of the city’s art history resources. He contributed to the formation of the infrastructure of creativity. Composers and artists began to look for new forms of presentation of reality and new forms of activating sensory and abstract logical resources of a person’s worldview in extreme conditions of technogenic changes, dynamic in terms of the content of the situation of the birth of the modern era. M. Chagall’s creative gift took place in Vitebsk. K. Malevich was among the teachers in the public school opened by him.

This urban school of Art Nouveau was to become a part of the Parisian school of European musical art in migration. On its basis, original creative projects were realized, first, the Russian seasons in Paris, organized by S. Diaghilev with the participation of a native of Belarus L. Bakst. This was the first wave of migration due to the pre-war years leading up to the First World War.

Thanks to the artists, the musical culture of Russia has acquired an attractive stage image. L. Bakst was aware of the music and those images that were designed in the form of costumes, theatrical props. The music was further enhanced by the visual aesthetics of the stage design.

The change of paradigms of artistic creativity demanded reflection in intellectual creativity. M. Bakhtin, whose life turned out to relate to the Vitebsk province, raised in his works topical issues of communication, medieval aesthetics, hermeneutics, carnivalization of culture.

Vitebsk, where M. Bakhtin’s creative years passed, became one of the centers of design activity. The First World War and the civil war that followed in Russia ended the era of aristocratic culture not only in Belarus but also in Europe. J. Ortega y Gasset wrote about the beginning of the era of the crowd. F. Nietzsche expounded the conceptual foundations of the philosophy of nihilism in his notes. Already F. Dostoevsky saw the tragic threshold of the era of nihilism [10]. This intuition of the writer of the golden age became the basis for subject consideration in the works of M. Bakhtin [11].

¹ Статья публикуется в авторской редакции.

About the authors

Alexander I. Loiko

Author for correspondence.
Email: alexander.loiko@tut.by

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Head of the Department of Philosophical Studies

References

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