The main theoretical work of the outstanding domestic historian, geographer, and thinker L.N. Gumilev is dedicated to the description of the laws governing the functioning of the ethnosphere as a form of existence of the species Homo sapiens on the planet Earth. To explain these laws, the author introduced into scientific circulation phenomena he discovered: passionarity, ethnic field, phases of ethnogenesis, positive and negative complementarity, superethnoses, antisystem, ethnic chimera, and others. The book answers many questions, the relevance of which has sharply increased recently. Why does humanity divide into ethnic groups? What cements different, often dissimilar people into a single ethnic unity— a nation? What is civilization? What is the lifespan of superethnoses? Why can't a single religion and a common culture for all humanity be created? Why can some peoples peacefully coexist with their neighbors, while others constantly strive for superiority and the capture of foreign lands and resources? What are antisystems, what are the causes of their emergence, their nature, and the consequences of their activities? The author's preface to the book by L.N. Gumilev, "Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of the Earth" is by I.S. Shishkin. The book is equipped with a list of literature, a name index of historical figures, an index of names of cited authors, and a list of illustrations and tables. This book will help thoughtful readers navigate the complexities of the modern troubled world, in which we are witnessing a clash of civilizations based on diametrically opposed value systems. The book is addressed to historians, geographers, philosophers, ethnologists, and a wide range of interested readers.
