L.N. Gumilev on the problems of interaction between ethnic groups

The article discusses L.N. Gumilev ’s views on the problems of interaction between ethnic groups. The principles of their interaction are allocated: coexistence, assimilation, metisation and merging. The author pays special attention to disclosure of violence. The article analyzes its essence, its various forms, especially such drastic form as a war, which, according to Gumilev, occurs either inside ethnic system, or between 126 Слюсар В.Н. Л.Н. Гумилев о проблемах взаимодействия этносов states. To analyze the nature of interrelations between the ethnic groups, in his theory he introduces a so-called scale of complementarity, on the basis of which he allocates positions - positive, neutral and negative. On the historical example Gumilev revealed a complex dialectics of interrelations between the ethnic groups. Even the simple coexistence of the ethnic groups is not neutral, i.e. sympathy or antipathy can occur, but mutual respect to each other can form even at long-term enmity. The interaction of superethnoses is much more difficult, in Gumilev’s opinion it is often accompanied by ethnic annihilation, demographic decline and destruction of the weaker. However, in history the coexistence of ethnic groups, who interact as representatives of different superethnoses, is traced.