As people know, I've been doing a lot of research as of late on the Russian Cossack revival movement. As it turns out, part of the theoretical basis justifying reconceptualizing the Cossacks in ethnic terms rather than as an estate is the work of Soviet philosopher of history Lev Gumilev* (the son of Anna Akhmatova), in particular his concept of "subethnos." I've been reading his book Ethnosphere, but was wondering if anybody had further info on him. Thanks! (Note the the relentless googler of everything existed -- stuff I can find myself by googling on "Gumilev" not necessary!)
* Also a big influence on the Eurasian movement, the main representatives of which are Evgeny Primakov and Alexander Dugin, who BTW writes hilariously self-parodic reviews of music videos for the Russian edition of Rolling Stone. (He refers to the Caballa a lot.)
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