Geopolitical Imagination : Ideology and Utopia in Post-Soviet Russia / Mikhail Suslov, Andreas Umland, Mark Bassin

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suslov, Mikhail, Author.

Contributor:

Umland, Andreas, Editor.

Bassin, Mark, Author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 215

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politik.

Geschichte.

Russland.

Konservatismus.

Politics.

History.

Conservatism.

Russia.

Local Subjects:

Politik.

Geschichte.

Russland.

Konservatismus.

Politics.

History.

Conservatism.

Russia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (301 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Hannover ibidem 2020

Biography/History:

The author: Mikhail Suslov, Cand. Sc., Ph. D., is Assistant Professor of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. His papers have appeared in Acta Slavica Iaponica, Eurasian Geography and Economics, The Russian Review, Europe-Asia Studies, Geopolitics, Global Affairs, Kritika, Ab Imperio, Revolutionary Russia, Russian History, Demokratizatsiya, Voprosy filosofii, Voprosy kul'turologii, and Forum noveishei vostochnoevropeiskoi istorii i kul'tury. His recent publications include The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia (I.B. Tauris 2019), co-edited with Per-Arne Bodin, and Contemporary Russian Conservatism: Problems, Paradoxes, and Perspectives (Brill 2019), co-edited with Dmitry Uzlaner. The author of the foreword: Dr Mark Bassin is Baltic Sea Professor in the History of Ideas at Södertörn University, Sweden.

Summary:

This timely book surveys key themes and tendencies in the development of conservative ideology in Russia. Mikhail Suslov argues that Russia’s historical experience of Westernization and the geopolitical struggle for recognition led her conservatism towards critical reflection about Russia’s cultural authenticity and its place in the world. As a result, unlike canonical ‘Western’ versions of conservatism, the Russian one was not only a response to liberal and revolutionary ideas and practice, but also an opposition to the worldview of the ‘Westernizers’. In today’s Russia, Putinism is making cautious attempts to lean upon some forms of ideological legitimation associated with ‘traditional values’ discourses. In this context, the ruling party ‘United Russia’ proclaimed conservatism its ideology in 2009. The Russian version of conservatism substantiates the anti-Westernism of Russia’s official line, but as an ideology, its nature is too paradoxical to become a long-term ally of the regime. Suslov analyzes these paradoxes and dilemmas by the examples of late-imperial neo-Slavophilism, émigré conservatism, underground right-wing dissident movement, and post-Soviet conservative streaks of thought.

Contents:

Intro

Foreword

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Studying Russian geopolitical imagination

Renaissance of geopolitics

Conspiracy, dialogue and political participation

Part I Geopolitical Culture: Approaches to Understanding

1 The Logic of Recognition, Confrontation and Exceptionalism in Russian Geopolitical Culture

Russia's "perpetual geopolitics"

Struggle for recognition and Russian geopolitical imagination

"Large space" and isolationism

The stigma of barbarism

Conclusions

2 Creating Usable Spaces in Education: Textbooks on Geopolitics

Geopolitics Redux: Studying, Teaching, Selling

Geopolitics: Ideology or pragmatism?

"Laws of geopolitics"

Securitization in textbooks

Biopolitics and the rhetoric of "energy"

Spatialization of history and the anti-colonial rhetoric

3 "Civilizationism" in Russian Geopolitical Culture

The mainstream political debates, "sovereign democracy" and the ideology of "Edinaia Rossiia"

ROC and civilizational discourses

The logic of fragility and security in civilizational discourses

4 Geopolitical Imagination and Russian Imperial Science Fiction

The Big Other of post-Soviet SF

Geopolitics of civilizations

The imperial sublime in Russian SF

Biology and energy

Engaging with Strugatsky brothers

Orthodox SF

Part II Imaginary Places

5 "Holy Russia"

"Holy Russia" project

"Holy Russia" as a civilization

Mapping Kirill's pastoral visits

6 Continent Eurasia in Russian Geopolitical Imagination

Defining Eurasian continentalism

"Naturalness"

Hyperbole of development

Hyperbole of autonomy

Hyperbole of authenticity

Conclusions.

7 Eurasian Symphony: Geopolitical Imagination and Alternative History

Emplotment and enjoyment in alternative history

Irony in Eurasian Symphony

East and West in Eurasian Symphony

8 "Novorossiia" in Russian Geopolitical Culture

Methodological note: The brand "Novorossiia" and its ideological meaning

Where is Novorossiia? Territorial indeterminacy

Ideology of Novorossiia

Novorossiia in online debates

Afterword: Amendments to the Constitution and Geopolitical Visions, 2020

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

3-8382-7361-3

Publisher Number:

9783838273617