Фёдоров, П. В. Северный вектор в российской истории : центр и Кольское Заполярье в XVI-XX вв. / П. В. Фёдоров ; Федер. агентство по образованию, Мурм. гос. пед. ун-т.

Summary 373 SUMMARY The monograph is devoted to the reconstruction of relations, contacts and stra tegic links between the center of the Russian state and the Kola North during the whole period of their visibility from XVI till the end of the X X ^ century. Historiography of Russia, which had great influence of the Russian Empire ideas, traditionally gave much significance to breadth of the Russian territory. As a result all strategies of Russia that did comply with this view were either ignored or considered unimportant for the national future. In S.M. Solovjev's opinion, for instance, rivers flow ing to the east or south-east determined "the expansion of the Russian state to the m e n tioned direction" and Saint-Petersburg gained its importance because it was founded "at the beginning of the great water route which still connects Europe and Asia". V.O. Kluchevsky believes that "history of Russia is history of the country, which has colonies... in Novorossia, the Caucasus, over the Volga and further on over the Caspian Sea, over the Urals in Siberia till the Pacific Ocean coasts". Kluchevsky says that to the south of the Russian plain there is an "Asian gore that penetrates the European continent and is closely connected to Asia historically and climatically". Not a word was said that the development could follow another direction, for ex ample, to the North, and could be in a form of a constant dialogue continued through the centuries. At the same time impassable and obstructive weakness in the West, East and South, "pressure of the borders and lack of space... within incapacious Europe" from time to time ma de the Russian state seek sustainability and pay attention to the geographic North: these accidental, occasional examples of attention to the polar latitudes were of ten not interconnected under the influence of the existing stereotypes. The further the more contradicting to the standard political concepts and ideas the existent Russian prac tice was. As a result, the ne w system of interaction developed during a few centuries of contacts between the center of the Russian state and its northern periphery which reflected traditional Russian geo-strategic possibilities and dreams. The beginning to it was put in XVI c. wh en Muscovite state got involved in solving the so-called "Lapp question" and ma de an international conflict a territorial one. After setting its polar boundaries the center not only joined the Kola North to its territory but w o n the first victory for the ocean shore. Despite the fact that the signifi cance of itwas not seen at once (international debates took place not in Mu r m a n but in Archangelsk because the former was "a poor place") the Lapp incident became one of