Far eastern policy of the post-Soviet Russia in the end of the XX century and the beginning of the 21st century: concepts, expert opinions and publicists' viewpoints

Investigation of Russia's turnabout to the East is a bright feature of the national humanitarian space of the early 21st century. Publications on this topic include the works of economists, geographers, sociologists and historians. It contains various viewpoints on the part that the Far Eastern region played in the social and economic development of Russia, as well as different genres (varying from publicism to scientific research), and expert assessments and recommendations to the government. The article deals with historiographic review of the emerging scientific trend and complements it with the methodology of social and political history. Humanitarians are considered to be part of the transformed “society-government” system. The analytics covers a variety of opinions on the two transformation stages of the post-Soviet history: the Far East during the 1990s and the first fifteen years of the 21st century. That allows tracing the interrelation between the regional policy and the intellectuals' reflection on it. The author comes to the following conclusion: in 1990s speaking about the Far Eastern policy the experts' society is rather unanimous in characterizing the consequences of the reforms as disastrous; but regarding the “turnabout to the East” the opinions become more varied; optimistic and pessimistic experts present extreme poles. The role of the Far East the Russian history of the early 21st century is rather controversial: on the one hand the region is a kind of problem for the Centre, and on the other hand, active development of the east is an essential part of the new stage in the development of Russia.