The First Russian Project of the Asian Academy: New Geopolitical Vector

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is the proof of the fact that the desire to create new political alliances and economic associations, including European and Asian countries, is not a manifestation of the latest trends in Russia's development strategy. In the beginning of the 19th century research projects about future geopolitical forms of the world including Russia's place in the new coordinate system, reflecting the views of individual government officials are being developed. The “Project of the Asian Academy” designed in 1810 by famous Russian statesman Earl Sergei Semenovich Uvarov, which is hardly known even in Russia, is detailed analyzed. The article shows that it is possible to distinguish two large clusters in this project: training of staff, with the ability to explore and to translate the unique artifacts of Asian culture and research in various scientific fields represented in Asia. The importance is given to the study of the history of Asia, in particular, the history of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Asia with the application of the general picture Islamism to it. New thematic fields of research are: Geography of Asia, religious ideas of Asia, oriental Philology and Philosophy. This indicates the aim to recreate a complete picture of Asian culture and introduce it to Europeans in 19th century.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p356