Last War of the World-Island

The Geopolitics of Contemporary Russia

Alexander Dugin

• Publisher: Arktos Media Ltd.
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781912975082
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

Alexander Dugin traces the geopolitical development of Russia from its origins in Kievan Rus and the Russian Empire, through the peak of its global influence during the Soviet era, and finally to the current presidency of Vladimir Putin. Dugin sees Russia as the primary geopolitical pole of the land-based civilizations of the world, forever destined to be in conflict with the sea-based civilizations. At one time the pole of the seafaring civilizations was the British Empire; today it is represented by the United States and its NATO allies. Russia can only fulfill its geopolitical mission by remaining in opposition to the sea powers. Today, according to Dugin, this conflict is not only geopolitical in scope, but also ideological: Russia is the primary representative and defender of traditional values and idealism, whereas the West stands for the values of liberalism and the market-driven society. Whereas Russia began to lose sight of its mission during the 1990s and threatened to succumb to domination by the Western powers, Dugin believes that Putin has begun to correct its course and return Russia to her proper place. But the struggle is far from over: while progress has been made, Russia remains torn between its traditional nature and the temptations of globalism and Westernization, and its enemies undermine it at every turn. Dugin makes the case that it is only by remaining true to the Eurasian path that Russia can survive and flourish in any genuine sense – otherwise it will be reduced to a servile and secondary place in the world, and the forces of liberalism will dominate the world, unopposed.

Notes

[←1 ]

“Territory,” “space,”, or “territorial space” is how the Russian word prostrantsvo, equivalent to the German Raum, is translated throughout.—Tr.

[←2 ]

Dugin uses the term narodnik as synonymous with the German term Volk, or peoples.—Ed.

[←3 ]

The author distinguishes between Russkii and Rossiiskii, which are both used throughout the text. The latter, unlike the former, usually refers to the notion of belonging to a nation-state, the Russian Federation. The former, on the other hand, refers to the broader notion of an ethno-social identity. Although there is no effective way to convey this in English, where possible, I translate the latter with “of the Russian Federation,” and otherwise use the term “Russian.”—Tr.

[←4 ]

Alexander Dugin, Geopolitics (Moscow: Academic Project, 2011).

[←5 ]

Halford Mackinder (1861–1947) was an English geographer, and also Director of the London School of Economics. A pioneer who established geography as an academic discipline, he is also regarded as the father of geopolitics.—Ed.

[←6 ]

Halford Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality (Washington: National Defence University Press, 1996).

[←7 ]

Friedrich Ratzel, Die Erde und das Leben (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1902). Ratzel (1844–1904) was a German geographer and ethnologist who attempted to merge the two disciplines, and is regarded as the first German geopolitical thinker.—Ed.

[←8 ]

Alexander Dugin, Foundations of Geopolitics (Moscow: Arctogaia, 2000).

[←9 ]

The Kievan Rus was a Slavic kingdom that emerged in the ninth century, which was comprised of parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. It was the first form of government to appear on the territory of Russia. It was conquered by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.—Ed.

[←10 ]

The Golden Horde was the name given to the empire that arose in the Slavic regions that were conquered by the Mongolians in the thirteenth century (after the color of the Mongolians’ tents). This kept the area that later became Russia isolated from developments in Europe.—Ed.

[←11 ]

Mikhail Leontyev, The Great Game (Saint Petersburg: Astrel’, 2008).

[←12 ]

George Vernadsky A History of Russia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969).

[←13 ]

Werner Sombart (1863–1941) was a German economist and sociologist who was very much opposed to capitalism and democracy.—Ed.

[←14 ]

Pitirim Sorokin (1889–1968) was a Russian sociologist who was a Social Revolutionary during the Russian Revolution, and was opposed to Communism. He left Russia and lived for the remainder of his life in the United States.—Ed.

[←15 ]

Pitirim Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1970).

[←16 ]

Peter I (1672–1725), or Peter the Great, was the first Czar to be called “Emperor of all Russia,” and instituted many reforms which led to the development of the Russian Empire as it was later known.—Ed.

[←17 ]

Among the Russian émigrés who were living in exile following the Revolution, the idea of Eurasianism was born, which held that Russia was a distinct civilization from that of Europe, and that the Revolution had been a necessary step in giving rise to a new Russia that would be freer of Western, modernizing influences.—Ed.

[←18 ]

The Provisional Government arose in the aftermath of the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in March 1917, and was intended to organize the elections that would lead to the formation of a new government. It was made up of a coalition of many different parties. Following the Bolshevik revolution in October, it was abolished.—Ed.

[←19 ]

However, the most populous lodge of the Great East of Russia’s Peoples (a Masonic lodge in Czarist Russia—Ed.) in 1912–1916 was undoubtedly the Duma lodge, “the Rose,” which the Masonic deputies of the Fourth State Duma joined in 1912. It...

Table of contents

• Editor’s Note
• Toward a Geopolitics of Russia’s Future
• The Geopolitics of the USSR
• The Geopolitics of Yeltsin’s Russia and its Sociological Significance
• The Geopolitics of the 2000s: The Phenomenon of Putin
• The Point of Bifurcation in the Geopolitical History of Russia
• Other books
• Notes