Armenian diaspora in Russia: contemporary approaches to studying

Abstract

The purpose of the review is to characterize general theoretical approaches to the study of diasporas in contemporary science and to present a historiographic analysis of the study of the Armenian diaspora in Russia. The research is based on a complex of historiographic sources: monographs, collective works, scientific articles, theses, that are devoted to the phenomenon of diasporas in the modern world. The authors emphasize the relevance of the study of diasporas in the context of globalization, mass migration, formation of new ethnic communities and polemics around the policy of multiculturalism. At present, the study of diasporas is conducted within the frameworks of history and philosophy, sociology and political science, ethnology and cultural studies, demography and economics, which explains the variety of methodological approaches to the phenomenon of the diaspora. Representatives of different humanities distinguish such defining features of the diaspora as stable ethnic (nostalgic) identity and collective memory, the presence of self-organization and a developed network of intragroup communications, a special style of life behavior and strategies for survival in the host society. These theoretical approaches find application in the study of the Armenian diaspora in Russia, which is a part of the world Armenian diaspora and at the same time has unique socio-cultural characteristics. Currently, the Armenian diaspora in Russia is widely studied both on a national scale and at the regional level, however, most studies cover only the southern regions and the capital of the Russian Federation. The creation of a comprehensive history of the Armenian diaspora in the Middle Volga region is an urgent scientific task. In the final part of the review, the authors outline possible prospects for further study of the Armenian diaspora in Russia and individual regions; this task can be solved using an interdisciplinary approach.

Keywords

• diaspora, armenian diaspora in russia, historiography, interdisciplinary studies, regional history