Cultural diffusion of the Circassians of Turkey and Russia (art cluster)

The issue of cultural interaction between the Circassians of Turkey and Russia, for a long period (about 200 years) being in cultural isolation from each other, is considered. With the opening of borders and the emergence of regular contacts, certain channels of cultural communications and influences were established. Questions are brought up for discussion about the reasons for the dominant cultural influence of the metropolitan minority on the diaspora majority, the degree and nature of this influence, and the facts of specific cultural borrowings are given. The reliability of the study is confirmed by the information obtained during the expedition to the Republic of Turkey in 2020 and 2021, work in the studios of artists in Turkey and Russia, communication with the Circassian intelligentsia of the diaspora and the leaders of Khase. It is obvious that cultural diffusion between the Circassians of Turkey and Russia went through the well-known 4 phases (rooting of innovation in the culture of the donor, transferring it to the culture of the recipient, dissemination in the culture of the recipient, subsequent processing). A feature of diffusion processes is a certain difference in the cultural needs of the Circassians of Turkey and Russia. For all Circassians, the need for ethnic identity, the unity of a disparate ethnic group, is dominant. At the same time, for the Russian Circassians, it is important to preserve and return the cultural values of the past, the best preserved, as is known, among the settlers. For the Circassians of Turkey, the need for the professional culture of their fellow tribesmen, which is demonstrated by Russian composers, instrumentalists, vocalists and dance groups, turned out to be attractive. Nevertheless, the culture of the Circassians of the metropolis to some extent "distances itself" from the culture of the Circassians of the diaspora in relation to the name of borrowed artistic products or the recreation of new ones according to their prototype. Cultural diffusion between the Circassians of Russia and Turkey leads to the enrichment of each culture and demonstrates a gradual loss of "other culture" and plasticity in embedding new elements into the existing systems.