Regionalism in the Life of Grigorii Gurkin

The problem of the disintegration of our country has arisen several times: the first time — as the disintegration of the Russian Empire, the second time — as the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Since the situation of disintegration has been consistently repeated, this process cannot be regarded as accidental. Among its causes is the ideology of regionalism. It emerged in the 19th century as a response to the colonial policy of the centre towards the outlying territories. Regionalism was inseparably linked to the life of Grigory Ivanovich Gurkin (1870–1937), the first painter of the Altai landscape, having affected him three times. For the first time, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, regionalism helped a representative of the minority from the Altai to become a professional artist. The work of the spiritual mission in the Altai, with all its peculiarity, was objectively the embodiment of regionalists’ dream about elementary education of national minorities. Gurkin’s painstaking mastering of literacy and icon painting, allowed him not only to develop creative abilities, but also to get acquainted through A. V. Anokhin with the leader of the Siberian regionalists G. N. Potanin. Friendship with Potanin, Anohin, and other representatives of the Siberian regionalism, promoted political awakening of the Altai landscape painter. After October events of 1917, Gurkin turned from assimilation of ideas of regionalism to their direct realization in political activity. For the third time, the ideas of regionalism were actualized at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, when the national elite of the Altai Republic transformed Gurkin into a key figure of ethnic solidarity.