Russian Eurasianism - Historiosophy and Ideology

In: Studies in East European thought, Band 54, Heft 1-2, S. 105-123

Abstract

I attempt to answer the question about the place of Eurasianism in the Russian intellectual tradition. I reconstruct its historiosophical assumptions as well the political ideology following from them. I share the opinion of certain historians that Eurasianism is interesting for a variety of reasons, but I disagree with those who see in it nothing more than a synthesis of standard ideas often found in the history of Russian thought. Eurasianism's originality includes its acknowledgment of the positive contribution of the Mongols to the history of the Russian state, the radicalism of its critique of the West, the innovativeness of its theory of revolution, as well as the absence, unusual for Russian thinkers of the period, of an eschatological sensitivity. Adapted from the source document.