ИСТИНА

Object of study – cultural regionalism in Russia and its historical roots. Research problem. Cultural regionalism is a historically rooted phenomenon for Russia; its study has a long-standing scientific tradition. But, nevertheless, to be compared with other countries, nations and cultures, various regional identity patterns are in some cases overlapped in Russia by national and ethnic identity patterns. The concept of the “a-spatiality” of the Russian culture (Smirnyagin, 1999, et al.) implies the absence of significant regional cultural contrasts within the Russian ethnic area; this concept has its “pro” and “contra”, to be elucidated in the paper. The impact of historical evolution of settlement structures of various ethnic and confessional groups on cultural regionalization of Russia is discussed. Research methods: historic-geographical, statistical, comparative geographical methods, historical mapping, field case studies, opinion polls and expert interviews. Conclusions. The cultural originality of historical Russian lands, emerged still in Medieval times, is a real and strong precondition of regionalism in Russia. The basic factors determining cultural regionalism development patterns in Russia have to be mentioned: the crucial role of the inherited cultural-geographical distinctions within the historical core of European part of Russia; the long-distance transfer of people and their cultural traits from historical core in Eastern Europe into Northern Asia; cultural borrowings from the aboriginal populations; the continuing cultural interchange between the ethnic mega-core of the country and the ethnic peripheries; drastic social transformations during the Soviet period and their impact on erosion of local consciousness and regional identity patterns.