The capital and provinces: The émigré version

Abstract

The article presents the cultural dichotomy “the capital — the provinces” in a diachronic per-spective, the author reconstructing its history and typology to apply the theoretical basis to the an-alysis of this phenomenon in Russian first-wave émigré culture. Presenting a minute retrospective analysis of the history of the three émigré capitals succeeding each other in the 1920s–1940s (Rus-sian Berlin — Russian Paris — Russian New York), the author argues that the corresponding status (the capital — the provincial) in the diaspora relied on three major criteria: the anthropological, the axiological, and the culturally typological, which, in their turn, were actualized by existential circumstances, the so-called human factor, and the orientation toward a certain type of culture and cultural tradition.