3. The push to increase the passionarity Gumilev sees in the external factor (bursts of cosmic radiation). The fact that the pushes have cosmic origin apparently results from the fact that Gumilev could not explain by earthly reasons the linear form and huge extent on the surface of the Earth of these pushes [16]. "One and the same push can create several foci of increased passionarity (and as a consequence – several super-ethnoses). So, the push VI touched Arabia, the valley of the Indus, Southern Tibet, North China and Middle Japan. "The same push can create several centers of the increased passionarity (and as a result – several superethnoses). So, push VI reserve Arabia, valley of Indus, Southern Tibet, Northern China and Central Japan. And in all these countries arose ethnoses-peers, but each of them had original stereotypes and cultures" [17, p. 14-17].
The logic of development of a civilization, according to Gumilev, consists in series of ethnoses, i.e. in replacement of the perished ethnoses by emerging ones, and the term of life of each ethnos is 1200-1500 years old.
Presented by Gumilev mechanism of emergence, existence and disappearance of holistic communities (ethnoses) – ethnogenesis, as it is evident at once, has in itself no strong basis, it is rather a set of the facts fastened with quite superficial considerations of the author.
But at first we will look at critical remarks of colleagues-scientists to address Gumilev's concept which concern a basis of ethnos, life cycle of ethnos, influence on this cycle of external factors, structure of life cycle of ethnos.
L.S. Klein points out that the basis of the ethnos, according to Gumilev, constituting the "geobiochemical energy of living substance" cannot be correlated with any kind of energy known to natural science [18, p. 228-246].
Shnirelman V. A. and Panarin S. A. state the absence of transparent, distinct and consistent definition of ethnos [19, p. 5-37].
M.I. Artamonov believes that Gumilev underestimates a role of social, cultural, religious and other non-biological factors in ethnogenesis, exaggerating a natural factor and equating ethnos and population [20, p. 75-77].
Yu.K. Efremov notes numerous mistakes of Gumilev at his definition of communication of ethnogenesis with landscapes [21, p. 77-80].
L.S. Klein sees no reason for subdivision the life cycle of the ethnos into four phases and for accommodate of this cycle into the interval of 1200-1500 years [18, p. 237-238].
A.L. Yanov believes that Gumilev equates events of ethnic and political history [22, p. 110-111].
L.S. Klein believes that the "passionaries" of Gumilev are identical to a sort of mutants who have acquired an increased ability to absorb the energy of the biosphere, and, accordingly, to stimulate the development of the ethnos [18, p. 238]. From the point of view of psychology, "passionaries" in Gumilev's representation are people who have a psychotype with a pronounced manic tonus.
L.C. Klein, L. A. Yanov, V. A. Shnirelman and S. A. Panarin also skeptical about the impact of the bursts of cosmic radiation as a push to the increase of passionarity [18, p. 238-239].
For its part, to this criticism we can add the following.
L.N. Gumilev is looking for the foundation of his concept of ethnogenesis in external factors, such as cosmic ray bursts, landscapes, historical and geographical features of a given territory, the state of adjacent ethnoses, etc., whereas external factors can really only manifest, being the opposing party, action on development both the person, and his communities of internal, hidden forces, strengthening or weakening this action, though, of course, out of the environment can be no question about development of something.
These forces or force Gumilev also did not discover. The only internal property that Gumilev discovers in a person is the presence in him of an oscillation of some energy of incomprehensible origin and properties that determines the absence or presence of passionarity: this unknown and unverifiable energy incomprehensibly how is being taken from the Earth's biosphere and is transformed by the person into work. Moreover, the fact of obtaining additional energy passes beyond the consciousness of a person. This conclusion seems completely unserious. Therefore, it turns out: it is not known what "destroys, – according to Gumilev, – the instinct of self-preservation."
Gumilev's view on the fixed time of the life cycle (existence) of the ethnos in the interval 1200-1500 years is also an erroneous view. It's not even about how many thousands of years it can exist – everything in our world of course – essence of the problem is completely different.
It is impossible to consider such complex and changeable formations – the holistic communities, – as a matter of fact. similar to the life of a living being – with its fixed cycle from birth to the period of blossoming with the subsequent sunset: ups and downs, a stable existence in the intermittent development of each community can be many for thousands of years, and we have many similar examples, unlike the rather labored examples given by Gumilev.
In the last section we will dwell on this problem in more detail.
It seems that all this criticism completely destroys the concept of Gumilev, reducing it to an amateurish craft for the needs of a semi-educated public.
Nevertheless, Gumilev was the only person from the entire scholarly community who tried to solve the problem quite original, which nobody has managed to solve so far.
Be that as it may, the questions assigned by him, have posed scientists and historians at a dead end, since they themselves were incapable of suggesting something new, except for the factors mentioned above, which they considered the driving forces of social development absolutely groundless, although within the framework of the materialist approach to the problem, Gumilev was is doomed to failure, inasmuch the materialists relying on approaches of natural sciences to an explanation of world processes, are forced to operate only with natural phenomena, and this circumstance does not allow them to be engaged in those phenomena that cannot be attributed to purely natural, which, for example, is human consciousness, the source of origin of which science is still not able to determine. Science is also incapable of understanding the essence of consciousness, although, definitely, it is consciousness that controls the human body, and not vice versa.
These questions are as follows.
1. Gumilev, in contrast to the above-mentioned scientists, who for the driving forces of development of society accept a secondary or external factors, capable in fact to affect only on the acceleration or deceleration of the development of individual communities and civilization as a whole, quite adequately noted the necessity of the presence as a driving force of every intelligent being and communities of these beings of some hidden, internal "mover", having called it passionarity, but presented this property as the internal energy of an incomprehensible type, which a person replenishes in one or another volume from a reservoir of the Earth's biosphere.
Anyway, Gumilev is right in the attempt to find not some external force, but internal gradually creating dynamics both for a human, and for any group of people united by common interests.
2. Quite fairly as well Gumilev's statement that in each person a certain internal essence acts, and the degree of its activity is defined by its fullness in the person or by its level. It is this fullness that causes a person to fall into a passive state or into an active state, or both of these states are balanced.
3. It is impossible not to agree with Gumilev in the fact that every holistic human community develops unevenly, and this irregularity is determined primarily by the rise or recession at the active part of the community of some inner essence, which he refers to as passionarity, wrongly considering that the nature of this essence is energetical.
4. As for the push initiating impetuous development of community (ethnos), of course, without internal readiness any external influence, for example, some non-fatal radiation, can remain just unnoticed, or the life of community, having suddenly agitated by war or an earthquake, for some time, again will enter the former course, that is, external impacts or influences in themselves can at best accelerate or slow the movement of the community forward, but this movement is possible only if they interact with some inner essence of the