Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire *[EPUB]
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has been marginalized at the edge of a Western-dominated political and economic system. In recent years, however, leading Russian figures, including former president Vladimir Putin, have begun to stress a geopolitics that puts Russia at the center of a number of axes: European-Asian, Christian-Muslim-Buddhist, Mediterranean-Indian, Slavic-Turkic, and so on. This volume examines the political presuppositions and expanding intellectual impact of Eurasianism, a movement promoting an ideology of Russian-Asian greatness, which has begun to take hold throughout Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Eurasianism purports to tell Russians what is unalterably important about them and why it can only be expressed in an empire. Using a wide range of sources, Marlène Laruelle discusses the impact of the ideology of Eurasianism on geopolitics, interior policy, foreign policy, and culturalist philosophy. Read more
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Why Must Read Russian Eurasianism: An Ideology of Empire?
Russian Eurasianism is often seen as an attempt to build a new Tsarist/Soviet empire. But it is more complex than that. Founded in the ashes of Tsarist thought, Russian Eurasianism became almost a utopian dream to obfuscate the failures of the Whites. Laruelle follows the three main Russian Eurasianist. The first two are from the Soviet era - Gumilev and Panarin. The last is the modern alt-Right Aleksandr Dugin. Each of these theorists have slightly different takes on what Eurasianism is and its purpose. It might be a civilization led by ethnic Russians or a civilization led by the Russian nationals or it might be a civilization with a common ethnos. Throughout, each of these (and the earlier therorists) appears to try to create a "non-European" ideal where Russia can reject both the Russia of the contemporary and the European ideals - whether Marxist or liberal. She finishes with a chapter on non-Russian Eurasianism. While interesting, I find it a tack on.
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