A.-Z. Validi and the Russian Eurasianists: A Failed Collaboration and Areas of Overlap

The Eurasianists of the 1920s – 1930s advocated for an understanding of Russia as a multi-ethnic civilization and supported the participation of representatives of Russia’s non-Russian peoples in the development of Eurasian ideology. The Kalmyk E. Khara-Davan, the Jew Ya.A. Bromberg, and the Georgian by father K.A. Chkheidze participated in the Eurasian movement. At the same time, the Eurasianists were interested in attracting Turkic Muslims to the movement (Savitsky lec­tured to Tatar-Bashkir émigrés in Berlin in 1925). In this regard, the attempt at cooperation with the Eurasianists by Akhmet Zaki Validi (1890–1970) is of interest. A.-Z. Validi (Togan) was an outstanding Bashkir scholar, initially a Russian, and later a Turkish Orientalist and historian of Turkestan. He was a pan-Turkist politician; during the Civil War, he participated in the creation of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic, but due to disagreements with Lenin, he moved to Central Asia and then emigrated to Turkey. With his scholarly works on the history of Turkic peoples, he gained authority not only in the countries of the East but also in Western Europe, Eng­land, and the USA. He is considered the last representative of the classical school of Russian Ori­ental studies founded by V.V. Bartold. In 1933, in Vienna, he met twice with the leader of Eurasianism, N.S. Trubetskoy, and proposed cooperation with the publications of the Kondakov Seminar in Prague. He corresponded with P.N. Savitsky, E. Khara-Davan, and possibly G.V. Ver­nadsky. Validi studied the works of the Eurasianists and cited them in his own writings (and Ver­nadsky cited Validi’s works). Although Validi’s publications in near-Eurasian journals never ap­peared, one can speak of scientific cooperation and mutual influence. The article examines the grounds for this cooperation and the areas of overlap in the views of Validi and the Eura­sianists, despite their disagreements (the Eurasianists were opponents of Pan-Turkism, and Validi saw “hidden imperialism” in the political ideology of Eurasianism). In our opinion, these overlaps include anti-Eurocentrism in Validi and the Eurasianists, and a positive assessment of the historical role of Genghis Khan.