[Discussion] Avrasyacilik ideolojisi

[Gonul Pultar]

Putin'i agirladigimiz günlerde yararli bir okuma:


PUBL.- Marlene Laruelle, The Eurasianist Ideology: A Conception of Empire

Marlene Laruelle. Ideologija russkogo evrazijstva. Mysli o veli ii imperii
[The Eurasianist Ideology: a conception of Empire]
Moscow, Natalis, 2004, 287 p.
Translated from French: L'ideologie eurasiste russe ou comment penser 
l'empire
Preface by Patrick Seriot, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1999, 423 p.

This book, which was first published in French in 1999 and, relates in
Russian the history of one of Russia's main ideological movements,
Eurasianism, and studies its scientific and political postulates. It 
focuses
on the movement in the 1920-30s, which constitutes the basis of the
neo-eurasianist movements which emerged in the 1990s.

Eurasianism came into being in the 1920s in Prague, Berlin and Paris in the
circles of Russian emigres. At its head were linguist and ethnographer
Prince Nikolai S. Troubetzkoy (1890-1938) and geographer Petr N. Savicky
(1895-1968). Eurasianism was the most original discourse among the Russian
emigres and its combination of philosophy, reflections about national
identity, and politics was extremely fertile intellectually speaking. It 
has
undergone a number of violent controversies with some of its objectors (N.
Berdiaev, P. M. Bicilli, G. V. Florovsky, A. A. Kizevetter, P. N. Miliukov,
etc.) and has also experienced internal dissension, in particular in the
1930s when some of its protagonists decided to support Soviet Union.

Eurasianism's central presupposition rests on the existence of a third
continent between East and West, called Eur-Asia. Eurasianism also supports
the idea of an organic unity of cultures, which would have sprung in this
area from a symbiosis between the Russian, Turkic, Moslem, or even Chinese
worlds. In turn, it has created an original interaction between political
philosophy, geographist ideology, history, and orientalism which led to the
development of a positive but general discourse on the Orient. In their 
view
Russia should be closer to Asia than to Europe; Orthodoxy should be an
oriental religion; Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are appreciated for their
mysticism and their fundamentalism.

This belief in a Eurasian entity implies first of all a new imperial
identity for Russia, preferring Asian to Western models, and secondly an
authoritative and almost theocratic regime in the twenty-first century.
Eurasianism supports the cult of national diversity but in the same time
defines Eurasia as a space for exclusive Russian identity, without 
seeing in
that any contradiction. Therefore, it fully assumes confusion between
russkii, rossiiskii and Eurasian. It also proves that red-to-brown
ideologies are not a new phenomenon in Russia: they draw their intellectual
roots from some elaborated movements born at the turn of the century and in
the interwar years.

Therefore Eurasianism appears as a recurrent element found in the 
discourses
of Russian political and intellectual circles dealing with the destiny of
their country. Nowadays it is experiencing an important renewal both in
Russia and Kazakhstan. Russian Neo-Eurasianists are striving to become
Putin's advisors as well as the new

Marlene Laruelle is a post-doctoral fellow at the French Institute for
Central Asia Studies (IFEAC) in Tashkent. She received her PhD at the
National Institute of Eastern languages and civilisations in Paris. Her
research involves nationalism in Russia and Central Asia and history of the
intellectual circles. She has published: Les Russes du Kazakhstan. 
Identites
nationales et nouveaux Etats dans l espace post-sovietique, [Russians in
Kazakhstan. National identities and new States in the Post-Soviet space],
written with Sebastien Peyrouse, Preface by Catherine Poujol, Paris,
Maisonneuve et Larose / IFEAC, 2004, 354 pp.

E-mail: marlenelaruelle@yahoo.com 
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=marlenelaruelle@yahoo.com>

French publisher: harmattan1@wanadoo.fr 
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=harmattan1@wanadoo.fr>
Russian publisher: natalis_press@mail.ru 
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=natalis_press@mail.ru>

Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies