№ 5 - 2004
Blyakher L.Ye.
Political Myths of the Far East

Proceeding from the interpretation of political myth as collective knowledge apt to organize communication, which provides compatibility of group members’ “cognitive horizons” and determines the parameters for delimiting “our” from “alien” dimensions, the author analyzes the most meaningful political mythologems and sense complexes bound up with them, peculiar to the population of the Far East. In his judgment, in consequence of the destruction of the “flowing” culture traditional for the Far East, the only myth now shared by most Far Easterners is the myth of Chinese threat. This myth — in combination with the “resentment” borne against Moscow which has “forsaken” the region — not so much consolidates the population of the region as feeds the urge to break away from it. To reverse the process of degradation of social culture of the territory, the author maintains, creation of a new myth, to be instilled in Far Easterners’ consciousness, is required. In this respect, in his opinion, a positive effect might arise from substituting the image of a “trading station” to the disintegrated image of an “outpost”.