Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2015 number

The paper attempts at reviewing and evaluating main trends in Siberian studies in Germany during the XX - early XXI centuries. The author reveals major research centers dealing with the Russian and Siberian history (Workshop on Eastern European History at the Frederick William University in Berlin; the German Society for East European Studies; Institutes of Eastern Europe at West Berlin Free University and in Munich; University of Cologne, Institute of Social Anthropology in Halle etc.); analyzes a range of problems addressed by researchers of the early period of Siberian history. It is noted that German scholars focused on the problems of socioeconomic development of Siberia (C. von Zepelin, G. Krahmer, K. Wiedenfeld, Jos. Klein, W. Klumberg, H.-J. Seraphim); Russian territorial expansion in Northern Asia (O. Hőtzsch); history of academic expeditions (E. Winter, G. Műhlpfordt, P. Hoffmann, E. Donnert, U. Grabosch); instruments of extending and preserving Russia’s influence, and in general - problem of Siberia’s integration into the Russian Empire (D. Dahlmann, C. Witzenrath, C. Weiss, S. Frank, E.-M. Stolberg). During the period of confrontation between the USSR and «capitalist world» the West German historians were in fact isolated from their Soviet counterparts. «Cold War» rhetoric influenced the Siberian studies. Many authors in West Germany wrote about the aggressive and military character of colonization of Siberia and the Far East being one of the aspects of Russian expansionist policy. Despite the declining interest in Russia among Western scholars typical for the post-Soviet decades new research directions of Siberian studies in Germany are developed. The ongoing scientific cooperation between the Russian and German scholars within the framework of international research projects provide further acquisition of new historical materials along with methodological and theoretical development of Siberian historiography.