St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Press, 2014, 368 p.

The new monograph by the famous St. Petersburg sinologist N. A. Samoilov is a fundamental study devoted to the analysis of the main stages, forms and content of socio-cultural relations between Russia and China in the XVII-early XX centuries. Deep scientific work is based on generalization and comprehension of a wide range of sources and research literature. The source base of the monograph consists of materials in Russian and Chinese: historical documents, diaries and memoirs of diplomats and travelers, scientific publications, journalism, memoirs, and works of art related to the historical period under consideration. The author has tried to take into account all available research works on the issues raised, as a result of which the book, in my opinion, can be considered a generalizing work, since it is designed to reflect all fundamentally important and significant approaches to the problem under consideration. At the same time, the monograph also contains a number of innovative ideas.

In the introduction, the author, pointing out that in the relations between states and peoples, in addition to political and diplomatic contacts, there has always been a socio-cultural component that ultimately influenced the nature of interstate relations, justifies the relevance of formulating new theoretical approaches to the study of the interaction of societies with pronounced features. In this case, Russia and China represent different variants of civilizational development that have both some similarities and significant differences, i.e. there is a kind of intercivilizational dialogue, in the sphere of which images and stereotypes of mutual perception were formed. The main concept of the study is to formulate the theoretical and methodological foundations for studying socio-cultural interaction and analyze the main stages of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China with the help of the identified parameters, identifying the forms, channels and attractors of this interaction at each of them (p. 4). When justifying the historical framework of the study (XVII-early XX centuries). The author proceeded from the fact that this rather long chronological period clearly shows the dynamics and reveals the most important factors in the history of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China.

Chapter 1, "Theoretical Foundations for the Study of Sociocultural Interaction," contains four sections that address various aspects of the theoretical foundation underlying the study. Section 1.1 "Interdisciplinarity as the basis of modern historical research" is devoted to the analysis of new trends and significant changes in the development of world historical science - the "anthropologization" of historiography (i.e., the shift of the center of gravity from studies of the history of socio-political institutions created by man and their functioning to the study of direct human participation in historical creativity and its place in on the continuum of historical development) and a turn towards interdisciplinarity (the use of techniques and methods of various humanities, and sometimes natural and exact sciences).

In section 1.2 "Socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China: historiography of the issue", the author undertakes a historiographical analysis of the problem of the history of interaction between the two countries and peoples in the social and cultural sphere. According to N. A. Samoilov, certain aspects of studying the history of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China are becoming increasingly popular among historians of Russia, China and some Western authors. However, the theoretical understanding of this complex historical phenomenon still lags behind the process of accumulating factual material (p. 29).

Section 1.3 "Theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of socio-cultural interaction", in which the author defines the main methodological approaches, research methods and terminology, should certainly be considered important in theoretical terms. Having analyzed the theoretical and methodological experience accumulated by the humanities, the author of the monograph recognizes that neither civilizational nor formational approaches to the study of models of human society development, widespread in the XX century, at the present stage do not give a definite answer.-

It is possible to provide comprehensive coverage of the processes of interaction between societies in the historical continuum. Historical science enters the path of searching for and developing new paradigms. In this regard, the author considers the modern understanding of the term "culture" and formulates his own, in my opinion, rather exhaustive definition of this concept: "Culture is a qualitative state of human society and its socio-historical environment formed by generations, which includes the whole set of material and spiritual values created by it and arises as a result of human creative activity based on the following principles: communications between individuals and epochs " (p. 42).

The concept of socio-cultural interaction is discussed in detail in the section. The author points out that the theory of sociocultural supersystems was formed and spread in the humanities of the XX century almost in parallel with the development of the formation and civilizational paradigms. Today, there are prerequisites for integrating some of their aspects into the paradigm of development of socio-cultural super-systems and their scientific reconciliation. Analyzing the situation with the development of the definition of the concept of "socio-cultural interaction", N. A. Samoilov notes that to date, Russian science has not developed a clear definition in this regard, but "the process of socio-cultural interaction is primarily the interaction of societies and cultures in the space-time continuum, that is, a process that develops at the macro level, although it is not fully understood. particular manifestations, of course, are reflected in phenomena of a micro-level order" (p. 48).

In section 1.4 "Forms and stages of socio-cultural interaction", the author of the monograph introduces the appropriate terminology and gives the necessary definitions, and offers his own approach to studying the interaction of socio-cultural systems. He developed a periodization of the history of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China, which includes the following stages: indifferent interaction (episodic contacts of representatives of societies and cultures that do not change the general nature of interaction and the contact environment), identification (a kind of process of "recognizing" a different socio-cultural environment, which most often occurs spontaneously, leading to unsystematic accumulation of information and spontaneous interpenetration integration of elements of one socio-cultural environment into another), activation (borrowing of certain cultural layers, coverage by socio-cultural interaction of increasingly broad spheres of culture and various aspects of the population's life), adaptive stage (active borrowing and use of achievements of another culture), socio-cultural synthesis (active interpenetration of cultural achievements and any social institutions) (pp. 51-52).

According to the scientist, the nature of socio-cultural interaction may be different. It depends on the stage of social development, formation shifts, cultural transformation, political or ideological processes: passive, when one culture is a donor, and the second-perceives its achievements and often assimilates, and reproductive, in which the recipient culture behaves more actively, intensively borrowing and accumulating new cultural potential, creating the basis for the development of new cultures. transition to a new quality (pp. 52-53).

The idea of society, state, and culture formulated in the monograph as peculiar dynamical systems that evolve in a time continuum is interesting, as well as the author's assumption that in the case of interaction of phase spaces of these dynamical systems, a zone of their mutual overlap is formed, within which a new phase space is formed in its essence - a new dynamic system is created. sistema, "geocultural field" (p. 55).

Chapter 2, "Russian-Chinese Relations in the 17th and early 20th Centuries: a Phenomenology of Interaction and Identification," describes the stages of Russian-Chinese interstate relations and the socio-cultural factors that influenced them. The chapter begins with a general description of the Russian and Chinese variants and directions of civilizational development (section 2.1 "Russia and China in the space-time continuum"), in which there are both noticeable similarities and serious differences (p.57). Section 2.2 "Sociocultural characteristics" presents the opinions of scientists regarding the sociocultural characteristics of the Russian and Chinese societies and specific carriers of these cultures. Russia and China are two socio-cultural super-systems that have a long history and have fundamentally different civilizational features and characteristics. This, however, did not prevent them from interacting in the least (p.63). In section 2.3 "Russia and China: Geocultural space and geocultural images", the author focuses on

Special attention is paid to the characteristics of the main historical and cultural dominants that formed the basis of geocultural images of Russia and China at certain stages of their historical development.

The remaining sections of Chapter 2 are devoted to the characteristics of individual stages of Russian-Chinese diplomatic and socio-cultural interaction: the first contacts of Russians with China (Section 2.4), the Russian state and the Qing Empire in the second half of the XVII century (section 2.5), Russia and China in the XVIII-first half of the XIX century (section 2.6), The author comes to the conclusion that diplomatic contacts, the form and content of treaties, and the nature of negotiations largely reflected the contact, interaction, or dialogue between the two civilizations. The occasional confrontation between two different socio-cultural systems often resulted in various variants of intercivilizational compromise, which guaranteed the peaceful coexistence of the two states and peoples. Only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the socio-cultural component began to play a smaller role in interstate relations and when, due to internal socio-economic processes of a formative nature, Russian foreign policy began to acquire the features of imperialism, the possibilities of compromise began to decrease (p.116).

Chapter 3 "Communication channels, contact zones and attractors of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China in the XVII-early XX century" analyzes various elements of the system of socio-cultural interaction between the two states. Considerable attention is paid to trade and economic relations between Russia and China as an integral part of the process of socio-cultural interaction and their influence on the phenomena of the socio-cultural order (section 3.1 "Trade and economic relations as a factor of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China"). As a major factor in Russian-Chinese socio-cultural interaction, trade has become an important communication channel for the interpenetration of elements of both cultures. N. A. Samoilov largely explains this for socio-cultural reasons: the inability of Russian entrepreneurs to adequately perceive the specifics of China's trade and Chinese mentality and correlate them with Russian socio-economic and socio-cultural features did not allow them to extract the corresponding trade benefits (p.140).

The Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing has become a unique factor in the socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China. Its place and role in the process of interaction are analyzed in Section 3.2 "The Russian Spiritual Mission in Beijing and its role in the process of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China". Summarizing a wide range of materials related to the history of Orthodox missionary work, the author of the monograph comes to the conclusion that the Russian spiritual mission, founded in the capital of the Qing Empire and directly in contact with representatives of various strata of Chinese society, was a translator of the Russian cultural code and a permanent institution of the interaction process (p.166), step by step

In section 3.3 "Kyakhta and Maimaicheng: the geocultural space of interaction between Russia and China in the XVIII-XX centuries", one of the key moments in the history of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China is analyzed, one of the attractors of socio-cultural interaction, in which the process of forming its communication code took place. Kyakhta and Maimaicheng trade points on the Russian-Chinese border in the region of Mongolia-since the XVIII century. for almost two centuries, they represented a symbiosis of elements of Russian and Chinese cultures. In terms of urban planning, economic and cultural aspects, Kyakhta and Maimaicheng were a kind of two initially dissimilar socio-cultural types based on their inherent civilizational foundations. Such interaction directly influenced the formation of a new geocultural space, which the author of the monograph discussed in the first chapter (pp. 55-56).

Chapter 3 (section 3.4 "The Frontier: a space of sociocultural interaction") deals with the concept of "the frontier", which is becoming increasingly broad in its historical, geopolitical and cultural meaning. In the context of the paradigm of sociocultural interaction, N. A. Samoilov characterizes the frontier as a kind of contact zone, in which the processes of interaction and mutual identification of different cultures and contacts between owners of various ethnopsychological features are most clearly and clearly traced (p. 180). Describing the characteristics of the frontier, which acted as an attractor, the author deals with frontier trade relations, the phenomenon of hunghuzism, armed clashes (the so-called Manza war), attempts to create independent territorial formations

(the so-called Zheltuga Republic), contacts in the economic field, in the sphere of culture. All this characterizes the frontier as a place of active, permanent and natural contacts between representatives of two societies and cultures.

Contacts in the field of art are analyzed in section 3.5 " Russian-Chinese cooperation in the field of art: Russian version of chinoiserie." The growth of interest in Chinese art was stimulated by the development of Russian-Chinese trade, the filling of the Russian market with Chinese goods, and was also due to the aesthetic ideas formed in Russia in the XVIII century under the influence of the current of Western European art "chinoiserie". In contrast to the widespread opinion that the fascination with" Chinese art " began in Russia with Peter the Great, the author emphasizes that the first documented authentic Chinese items appeared in Russian interiors as early as the time of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich (p.191). The fascination with" chinoiserie " contributed to the formation among Europeans, including in Russia, of a distorted and romantic idea of China as an exotic country, where the life of the people is as it is depicted on porcelain vases (p. 190), i.e. very far from reality. However, at the same time, the author of the monograph is sure that it was thanks to the Chinese fine and decorative arts in the XVII century. a decisive step was taken towards a dialogue between the two cultures (p. 202).

Section 3.6 of the monograph "Visits of Chinese diplomats and the first Chinese students in Russia in the second half of the XIX century: a communication channel for socio-cultural interaction" tells about diplomatic visits of envoys of the Chinese state to Russia. During the diplomatic visits of envoys of the Qing Empire, undertaken in order to better understand the situation outside their region and learn more about the life of Western countries, the socio-cultural characteristics of representatives of different peoples as carriers of fundamentally different cultural codes clearly made themselves felt. N. A. Samoilov is sure that such missions objectively played the role of a kind of intermediary between cultures and they became a kind of translators of the communication code of socio-cultural interaction (p. 203). Qing diplomats of the second half of the 19th century contributed to the development of political contacts between the two countries and significantly influenced the activation of socio-cultural interaction between China and Russia. The information accumulated by the diplomats during their visits contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about Russia in China. The visits and stay of the Chinese envoys themselves have enriched the Russian society's understanding of other peoples, provided material for the subsequent establishment of a cultural dialogue, which allows us to consider them as translators of the communication code (p. 217).

Section 3.7 "Foreigners in the Russian service and their role in socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China" raises the issue of attracting foreigners to the civil service in Russia. Native speakers of the Western socio-cultural tradition, who had diplomatic experience, were fluent in foreign languages, and were ready to represent the interests of the Russian state with dignity, were very willingly accepted by the Russian tsars to serve in the sphere of foreign policy and diplomacy. The author of the monograph names those foreigners who played an important role in the establishment of Russian-Chinese relations: Moldovan boyar (Greek by origin) I. Spafari, Dane I. Ideas, the Swede L. Lang, the Serb S. Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, the Englishman D. Bell, the Pole J. Belobotsky, and others. It is important to emphasize the fact that foreigners who were involved in the process of socio-cultural interaction between Russia and China in the XVII-XVIII centuries. They were already operating within the framework of the Russian geocultural field, not only playing the role of interpreters of Russian culture, but also becoming its direct translators into the geocultural space of China, which actively contributed to the formation of a new communication code for the socio-cultural interaction of two empires, two societies and two cultures (p.223).

Chapter 4, " Areas and features of sociocultural interaction between Russia and China in the 19th and early 20th centuries," is devoted to a special stage of bilateral interaction, when all the processes under consideration were more intense than in the 17th and 18th centuries, covering new areas and identifying specific features. An important place in the chapter is occupied by sections devoted to the characterization of the image of a particular nation (country) in public thought and everyday consciousness of other peoples - section 4.1 "The formation of the image of China in Russia" and section 4.3 "The penetration of Russian culture into China. The Image of Russia in China". The processes of forming images and stereotypes are an integral part of the overall process of interaction.-

interaction of societies and cultures. The image of the" other " influences both the relations between individuals and the state's policy towards other states (p. 225). Therefore, the author of the monograph considers it extremely important to trace the evolution of images of various peoples, to identify the dynamics of their development in the space-time continuum and the mechanism of their formation. The author approaches this problem through a detailed analysis of modern achievements in the interdisciplinary scientific field of imagology (from Latin imago-image) (pp. 226-231).

N. A. Samoilov, following in detail and carefully the processes of forming mutual images that were going on in parallel in Russia (p. 232-253) and China (p.270-278), comes to the conclusion that by the beginning of the XX century, complex and contradictory mutual images were formed in both countries. Mutual perception on both sides was characterized by ambivalence caused by many factors, including the combination of traditional stereotypes with the perception of real reality, the expansion of the spectrum of social strata and groups in which mutual ideas and stereotypes were formed, etc.

This scientific work is certainly innovative. Among a large number of works devoted to the history of political and diplomatic relations between Russia and China, the problems of Russian-Chinese socio-cultural interaction are considered so systematically for the first time. It is important to note that the author has also developed his own theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of these problems. The huge factual material collected and analyzed confirms the formulated theoretical concepts. The monograph is undoubtedly of scientific value.

I would like to emphasize such features of the monograph as the impeccable style of presentation and the author's correctness in handling scientific material. The structure of scientific research looks quite harmonious. The text is provided with extensive and detailed comments.

The work may be of interest, first of all, to orientalists, historians of various profiles, as well as anyone interested in various aspects of the history of Russian-Chinese relations.

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