Russian nobleman’s socio-cultural adaptation in the era of revolution and the civil war: Alexander Alekhine

Abstract

The article draws on new archival sources to analyze the process of sociocultural adaptation of a Russian nobleman in the context of revolution and civil war. The author considers the change of individual strategies of adaptation to the dynamic conditions of the sociocultural environment of the “new world” and concludes that with a very high degree of risk, the ability of the nobleman’ adaptation to new conditions was preserved - in areas where the cultural tradition remained in the era of disasters. The patronage of the representatives of the new elite, who supported this tradition, helped to adapt to the point of assimilation, albeit superficially: in the conditions of competition with the “old world”, the mechanism of maladaptation was quickly activated.