The End and the Beginning Again

23 hrs. 55 min.

Language Russian

Author Lev Gumilyov

Narrator Ilya Prudovsky

Description

One of the most popular works by Gumilyov, “End and Rebirth,” reveals his famous theory of passionarity and explains the regularities of the emergence and development of ethnoses, the decline and collapse of great empires. According to the scholar, ethnoses in their development go through certain stages, and at each stage they have specific cultural, scientific, and social structures, as well as social and legal institutions. The provisions of the unique theory of passionarity created by the author are presented in an entertaining form and illustrated with examples from the life of peoples of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Special attention is given to outstanding strategists and oligarchs. A vivid and unusual book by Gumilyov is based on extensive historical material and presented in an easy, engaging way.

Contents:

• Author’s dialogue

• I. Ethnos: its properties and characteristics

• The person in the biosphere
• Mosaic anthroposphere
• Ethnos — not society?
• Ethnos — not race?
• Ethnos — not population?
• Reality and logic
• Subethnoses
• Sources of energy
• The ordinary story
• A systems approach
• A condition without which it cannot
• Energy of living matter

• II. Passionarity

• An irresistible force
• A field in the system
• One impulse—different goals
• Degrees of passionarity
• The ratio of impulse discharges
• Contagiousness of passionarity

• III. Bursts of ethnogenesis

• Social and ethnic histories
• The curve of ethnogenesis
• The Slavic-Gothic variant
• The Syrian variant, 1st century
• The Byzantine variant
• The Arabo-Sogdian variant
• The Indian (Rajput) variant
• The Tibetan variant
• The Hunnic variant
• The Tang (Tabgach) variant

• IV. And in Europe

• Franks
• French and Germans
• Vikings
• Feudal revolution
• Two indicators

• V. Akmatic phase

• Social imperative
• Subpassionaries
• Altered stereotype of behavior
• Passionary overheating
• Hundred Years’ War and ethnogenesis
• Overflowing of mind and heart

• VI. Ethnogenesis and cultural genesis

• The sphere of thought in ethnogenesis
• Hellas
• Iran and Turan
• Tibet
• India
• China
• Three parameters
• Invisible threads
• Worshippers of “fullness”
• Worshippers of “light”
• Marcion and Marcionites
• Cathars
• Zindiks
• “The Elder of the Mountain”
• A stop on the way
• The limited nature of negation

• VII. Passionary breaks

• The mechanism of breaking
• Passionary break in Bohemia
• Passionary break in Germany
• Reformation — indicator of breaking
• Passionary break in England
• Passionary break in Italy
• Passionary break in France
• The role of confessions in the breaking phase
• Passionary break in Byzantium

• VIII. Contacts at the level of superethnoses

• Polarization in superethnoses
• In America
• In Europe
• In Siberia and Alaska
• In Polynesia and Africa
• Forgotten past
• Crusaders
• Cumans on the Nile
• The Sidonian tragedy
• The path to disaster
• Hypothesis of the ethnic field
• Diachrony as a principle

• IX. The Golden Autumn of Civilization

• From break to “flowering”
• Costs of “flowering”
• Beyond Europe
• In the heart of Asia
• “Flowering” begins to fade
• Conquering nature
• Punishment of the Indians
• Nature’s revenge
• And it has always been so

• X. When darkness approaches

• Change of phase imperatives
• Bearers of obscuration in Rome
• Subethnos against superethnos
• Empire against the eternal city
• Decline of Iran
• Inextinguishable life
• Return of the lost “paradise”
• Loss of the dream

• XI. Hidden forces

• Ethnic regeneration as a principle
• Let’s test ourselves
• Will to rescue
• After the end
• Schemes of ethnogenesis of several superethnoses (phases)
• Dictionary of ethnohistorical names