Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | This paper explores the establishment of the notion of the so-called ‘centres of emigration’ from the Russian Empire during the interwar period. We investigate how the canonical representation of Russian émigré culture was formed within the paradigms of "Russian Paris", "Russian Berlin" and others, based on statistical reports and data collected at that time, which continue to serve as primary sources for most scholars in this field. We will see that, especially in the early stages, emigration flows did indeed follow specific directions, but also how unstable this situation was. How accurately does the notion of emigration centres describe the cultural context? We will examine this representation from the perspective of horizontal art history, which proposes to deconstruct this hierarchical centre-periphery narrative. Applying this concept in practice, we will analyse and visualise the data collected from the digital version of the biographical dictionary Iskusstvo i arkhitektura Russkogo zarubezh'ya (Art and Architecture of the Russian Emigration). We will see that, on the one hand, the recognized centres of emigration will still stand out, but on other levels, we will notice locations that differ from the established perception. Additionally, we will demonstrate how useful it is to represent such a large-scale phenomenon as Russian emigration as an interconnected system through networks. |
