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Russian Philosophy :
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Euroasianism
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Eurasianism
One of the trends in Russian anti-Westernism, justifying the reasons for which the West and Russia cannot be unified ideologically. According to this concept, Russia is neither Europe, nor Asia, but a continent in its own right: Eurasia. Its origin is sometimes thought to be found in the ideas expressed by F. Dostoevskii (‘Russia is situated not only in Europe, but in Asia as well; a Russian is not only a European, but also an Asian; Asia may hold a much greater promise for us than Europe and it is Asia that may shape our destiny in the future’), V. Solov’ev (‘Pan-Mongolism! Savage as it is, / the word sounds sweet to my ear’) and others.
Among the founders of Eurasianism (in the 1920s) were Russian émigrés: N. Trubetskoi, G. Florovskii, P. Savitskii, P. Suvchinskii, V. Il’in, L. Karsavin, M. Alekseev, M. Shakhmatov, G. Vernadskii, Y. Sadovskii, D. Mirskii, and some other, less well-known thinkers. Their ideology was created simultaneously with the concept of smenovekhovtsy and was a specific kind of orthodox ‘National Bolshevism’.
It was not accidental that Eurasians strove to oppose Bolsheviks to Communists. Communists, as the ‘mean doctrinaires’ were, according to the Eurasian interpretation, completely alien to Russian culture. The bolshevik ‘maximalists’, in spite of their previous mistakes, saved Russian sovereignty.
The founders of Eurasianism claim that ‘Russian culture is neither European nor any one of the Asian cultures, nor is it the sum or mechanical combination of elements of various cultures. It is a culture which is unique and specific, possessing no less value, and no less historical meaning than European or Asian culture. It should be contrasted with the cultures of Europe and Asia – as the middle ground – Eurasian culture. The term does not negate the right of the Russian people to leadership [...] We have to be aware of our Eurasianism in order to find in ourselves our Russian character. Freeing ourselves from the Tatar yoke, we must also throw off the European yoke’ (N. Trubetskoi).
Eurasianism defended its own culture in the past and it claims to do so today as well. N. Trubetskoi wrote extensively about ‘true’ and ‘false’ nationalism, defining only Eurasianist nationalism as real, trustworthy nationalism, which was not a threat to the development of other cultures, unlike Western European chauvinism and cosmopolitanism. At the same time he described the Orthodox religion as the only ‘true’ religion, emphasized a special ‘leading’ mission that Russia – Eurasia was to play in the history of the world and spoke of the idea of the Third Rome reflected by the ‘Third International’. Similarly A. Dugin, a contemporary Eurasian, the editor-in-chief of the journal ‘The Elements – Eurasian Review’ strives to include basic concepts of Russian nationalism into his world view. On the one hand, he calls for creating a specific supranational Slavo-Turkic community, which would fight against the ‘Anglo-Saxon world’ and Judaism. According to him, the Russian people do not constitute a nation or ‘ethnos’, they are a specific mystical unity. On the other hand, Russia, the Third Rome, and the Godbearing Russian nation is ‘the Nation of the Holy Spirit’, the salt of the Earth’ and the only nation in the world chosen by God for the redemption of the world. V. Polosin in journal ‘Rossiya XXI’ also calls for ‘the return to Eurasia’, because Russia has been chosen by Providence to carry out a special historic mission – of unifying the East with the West and the whole world. He believes that ‘Russia was and should again be a spiritual leader of humanity’, and the Russian people must wake up and rebuild Eurasia, because this is the task God Himself has entrusted to them.
Contemporary Eurasianism is supported in many works by L. Gumilev. His ‘geographosophic’ concept places him in the Russophile tradition, since he strives to prove that the Russian people are an unusual ‘superethnos’ and not just a nation with its specific culture and history. In his ethnogenesis equal forces of the universe are given some functions to perform. He distinguished the ‘anthroposphere’ as an ‘ethnosphere’ in the biosphere of the Earth and he ascribes ethnic diversity to geography. According to him, cosmic impulses in different climates give rise to different ethnoses and various cultural traditions. The ‘ethnosphere of Homo Sapiens’ has three superethnoses within the ‘structure of ethnosphere in Russia’: ‘the Russian ethnos’, ‘the Christian or civilized Western European world’, and ‘the Muslim world’. He further subdivided ‘superethnoses’ into ‘ethnoses’ of: ‘Great Russia’, ‘Little Russia’, and so on. These consisted of ‘subethnoses’ (‘Muscovites’, ‘Don Cossacks’, ‘peasants of Northern Russia’, ‘peasants of the Southern Russia’, and so on). He makes occasional references to the concept of ‘Eurasia’ in his earlier works, talking about ‘the Russian superethnos’ and later, when he came to be known as Eurasian, the concept of ‘Eurasia’ played an important role in his worldview. It has found its full expression in The Rhythms of Eurasia. Epochs and Civilization (1993), which identifies the ‘Russian superethnos’ with ‘the Eurasian superethnos’.
Andrzej de Lazari (O. E.)
Трубецкой Н.,Европа и человечество, София 1920.
Исход к Востоку. Предчувствия и свершения. Утверждение евразийцев, София 1921.
Карсавин Л., Восток, Запад и русская идея, Петроград 1922;
На путях. Утверждение Евразийцев, Berlin 1922;
Россия и латинство, Berlin 1923;
Евразийский временник, (Berlin 1923, 1925, Paris 1927) ;
Евразийская хроника, Praha 1925;
Евразийство. Опыт систематического изложения, Paris 1926;
Евразийство. Формулировка 1927 г., Paris 1927;
Евразийский сборник, Praha 1929;
Евразия. Еженедельник по вопросам культуры и политики, Paris 1928–1929;
Евразийство. Декларация, формулировка, тезисы, 1932.
Гумилев Л. География этноса в исторический период, Ленинград 1990;
Ритмы Евразии. Эпохи и цивилизации, Москва 1993.
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| Books
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Агурский М. - Идеология
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, Paris 1980 - ( E.P.-Ł, ) |
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Дугин А. - Евразия.
Исторические
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эмигрантов
, Москва 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Зеньковский В. - Русские
мыслители и
Европа: критика
европейской
культуры у
русских
мыслителей
, Paris 1955 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Люкс Л. - Россия между
Западом и
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, Москва 1993 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Люкс Л. - Мир России –
Евразия
, Москва 1995 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Новикова Л.,
Сиземская И. - О Евразии и
евразийцах
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Панарин А. - Пути Евразии.
Русская
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судьбы России
, Москва 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Панарин А. - Россия между
Европой и Азией:
Евразийский
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Струве Г. - Русская
литература в
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, Paris 1984 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Böss O. - Die Lehre der Eurasier. Ein Beitrag zur russischen Ideengeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts
, Wiesbaden 1961 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Epstein M. - The Russian Philosophy of National Spirit: Conservatism and Traditionalism
, Washington 1994 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Kaiser R. - The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USRR
, Princeton 1994 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Raeff M. - Russia Abroad. A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration 1919–1939
, New York 1990 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Smith G. - The Letters of D. S. Mirsky to P. P. Suvchinskii, 1922–1931
, Birmingham 1995 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Utechin S. - Russian Political Thought
, New York 1956 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Williams R. - Culture in Exile, Russian Emigres in Germany, 1881–1941 ,
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| Artickles
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Бердяев Н. - Евразийцы
, „Путь” (1) 1925 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Гессен С. - Евразийство
, „Путь” (8) 1927 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Дугин А. - О евразийстве ;
Евразийский
триумф , //
Савицкий П.,
Континент-Евразия
, Москва 1997 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Дугин А. - Теория
Евразийского
государства:
Предисловие , //
Алексеев Н.,
Русский народ и
государство
, Москва 1998 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Исаев И. - Евразийство: миф
или традиция?
, „Коммунист” (12) 1991 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Кожинов В. - Историософия
евразийцев
, „Наш современник” (2) 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Колеров М. - Братство св.
Софии: „веховцы”
и евразийцы (1821–1825)
, „Вопросы философии” (10) 1994 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Новикова Л.,
Сиземская И. - Политическая
программа
евразийцев:
реальность или
утопия?
, „Общественные науки и современн& (1) 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Панарин А. - Россия в
Евразии:
геополитиеские
вызовы и
цивилизационные
ответы
, „Вопросы философии” (12) 1994 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Сендеров В. - Евразия: прошлое
или будущее,
реальность или
миф?
, „Грани” (175) 1995 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Соболев А. - Россия спасется
только как
Великая Россия , //
В. Агафонов, В.
Рокитянский,
Россия в поисках
будущего
, Москва 1993 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Султанов Ш. - Дух евразийца
, „Наш современник” (7) 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Троянов А.,
Вильданова Р. - Библиография
евразийства
, „Начала” (4) 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Хоружий С. - Карсавин,
евразийство и
ВКП
, „Вопросы философии” (2) 1992 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Хоружий С. - Россия, Евразия
и отец Георгий
Флоровский
, „Начала” (3) 1991 - ( A.de L., ) |
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Хоружий С. - Трансформации
славянофильской
идеи в XX веке
, „Вопросы философии” (11) 1994 - ( A.de L., ) |
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