Athens of Siberia" or "Greekness" in the city space of Tomsk (on the case of Tomsk National-Cultural Greek Autonomy)

The question that is of interest in Diaspora as well as transnational studies today is what underlies the mobilization and manifestation of ethnicity, with its entering the public sphere (V.I. Dyatlov) as a result and constituting a potentially important social factor, producing certain phenomena and processes and thus giving food for thought over the very nature of these, despite the discussions around terms and categories of analysis to be applied in this regard by the academia. In studying ethnicity and diasporicity, it appears to be of certain value to consider processes, factors and the dynamics of both the collective and individual order. To theoretically approach these issues, it is important to collect, accumulate, comparatively study and discuss new empirical data and field material. To address some of the issues raised, this article offers a look at the case of the Greek community of Tomsk. Particularly, it deals with the conditions and factors of formation of the community and its specificities, with the forms of manifestation of the Greek ethnic belonging, primarily as it happens in the given urban space. Based on the case of the Tomsk Greeks, the author analyzes the categories of ethnicity and diasporicity, the understanding of «Greekness» as such by the community members, as well as possible reasons for the actualization of their ethnicity as a form of belonging and the value of it for them. Methodologically, the field research included participant observation, a number of semi-structured interviews and informal conversations, as well as a focus group carried out among the most active community members currently, i.e. members of community»s dance ensemble «The Pontic Mosaic». The concept of belonging (F. Anthias, J. Pfaff-Czarnecka) is used as the main theoretical framework for the analysis. The author proposes to consider the Greek community of Tomsk as a «diasporic community», placing emphasis on their feeling of commonality and «belonging together/with» to a greater «diasporic project» (R. Brubaker), with the intensity of that feeling rising and falling over the course of community»s life. Among the factors underlying the activation and representation of Tomsk Greeks» ethnicity are the role of community»s leaders and activists (V.A. Tishkov), the city environment, with Tomsk being seen as a center of culture and education that attracts students from Central Asia (with the founders of the Greek community of Tomsk also coming from this region), and the emotional and psychological, cultural and symbolic dimensions, as well as practical considerations of Greeks regarding their belonging to the community and to the new social space created by them within it, plus, the joint belonging to a greater and significant whole (hence the positioning of the community as part of the world Greek Diaspora). It is concluded that «Greekness» of the Tomsk Greeks can, with certain reservations, be conceptualized as «symbolic ethnicity» (H.J. Gans).

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