Russia Between East and West: Scholarly Debates on Eurasianism (International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology)

209 Pages·2006·3.03 MB·English

by  Dmitry Shlapentokh

Russia between East and West
International Studies
in Sociology
and Social Anthropology
Series Editors
Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo
Rubin Patterson
Masamichi Sasaki
VOLUME 102
Russia between East
and West
Scholarly Debates on Eurasianism
Edited by
Dmitry Shlapentokh
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2007
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russia between East and West : scholarly debates on Eurasianism / edited by Dmitry
Shlapentokh.
p. cm. — (International studies in sociology and social anthropology, ISSN 0074-
8684; v. 102)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15415-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 90-04-15415-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Russia (Federation)—Civilization. 2. Eurasian school. I. Shlapentokh, Dmitry.
DK32.7.R875 2006
303.48'24705—dc22
2006049207
ISSN 0074-8684
ISBN 90 04 15415 9
© Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ............................................................................ ix
Introduction: Eurasianism and Soviet/Post-Soviet Studies .......... 1
Dmitry Shlapentokh
Bibliography .................................................................................. 7
Chapter I: The Orient in Russian Thought at the Turn of the
Century ........................................................................................ 9
Marlène Laruelle
The Genesis of Eurasianism ...................................................... 9
The Turn of the Century, or the Crystallization of Discourse
on the Orient .......................................................................... 18
Orientalist Mysticism and Theosophy in Russia ...................... 19
Vladimir Soloviev and the Idea of Totality (Vseedinstvo) .......... 21
The Inheritance of Pan-Slavism: “Civilizationism” and Its
Assumptions .............................................................................. 21
The Idea of a Third Continent: The Geographical Mission
of Russia in the Orient .......................................................... 23
The Orientals Movement (Vostochniki) ........................................ 25
The Mongolian Wave: The Orient and Eschatology .............. 26
Eschatology Reviewed by the Revolutionary Prism .................. 27
A New Orient to Which Revolutionary Russia Belongs .......... 28
The Ambiguity of the Pre-revolutionary Russian Appeal to
the Orient ................................................................................ 30
The Genesis of Eurasianism before the Revolution ................ 30
The Eurasianists’ Orientalism and Its Limits ............................ 32
Conclusion .................................................................................... 35
Bibliography .................................................................................. 36
Chapter II: Eurasianism as a Reaction to Pan-Turkism .............. 39
Stephan Wiederkehr
Pan-Turkism—Threatening the Russian Empire?
Pan-Turkism and Modernization of Russia’s Muslim
Turks: The Emergence of Pan-Turkism in Russia .............. 41
Pan-Turkism in the Ottoman Empire ...................................... 43
World War I, the Russian Revolutions, and Afterward .......... 44
vi • Contents
Contemporary Perceptions of Pan-Turkism in the First
Quarter of the Twentieth Century ........................................ 45
Eurasian Nation-Building against the Challenge of
Pan-Turkism: The Eurasian Perception of Pan-Turkism .... 48
“True” and “False” Nationalism—The Eurasian Point of
View............................................................................................ 49
Conclusion .................................................................................... 56
Bibliography .................................................................................. 57
Chapter III: Karsavin and the Eurasian Movement .................... 61
Françoise Lesourd
Eurasian Connections .................................................................. 62
Separation from the Eurasian Movement .................................. 66
Soviet Experience ........................................................................ 67
Russian Culture and Religion .................................................... 69
Theory of Culture ........................................................................ 74
Revolution .................................................................................... 80
The New Russian State .............................................................. 89
Conclusion .................................................................................... 90
Bibliography .................................................................................. 94
Chapter IV: Absolutism and Authority in Eurasian Ideology:
Karsavin and Alekseev ................................................................ 95
Ryszard Paradowski
Karsavin’s Philosophy .................................................................. 95
Theory of the State .................................................................... 99
Alekseev and the Eurasians ........................................................ 106
Bibliography .................................................................................. 108
Chapter V: From Rejection to Attempts at Reconciliation:
Poles and the Interwar Eurasian Movement ............................ 109
Roman Bäcker
Interwar Russian Emigration and Polish Public Opinion ........ 109
Interest in Eurasianism in Poland .............................................. 109
Kazimierz Czapi…ski .................................................................... 100
Marian Zdziechowski .................................................................. 111
Marian Uzdowski ........................................................................ 113
Petr Savitskii and PrzeglAd Wspólczesny ........................................ 116
Polish Secret Service: Naive Illusions and Brutal Assessments 118
Poles and Eurasians, Interests and Stereotypes ........................ 119
Bibliography .................................................................................. 120
Contents • vii
Chapter VI: Anti-Semitism in Eurasian Historiography:
The Case of Lev Gumilev .......................................................... 121
Vadim Rossman
The Jews in Ethnic History ........................................................ 122
Judeo-Khazaria: “A Disaster for the Aboriginals of Eastern
Europe” .................................................................................... 128
Judaism in Relation to Christianity and Islam ........................ 129
Judeo-Khazaria and Russia ........................................................ 131
The Jews and the Nomads: The Khazar Origins of the
Eastern European Jews ............................................................ 136
Discussion of Gumilev’s Theory by Russian Nationalists ........ 140
Neo-Eurasianism: Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Jews ............ 145
The “Jewish Question” in Classical Eurasianism ...................... 149
The Jews in Neo-Eurasianism .................................................... 161
Amicus and Hostis: Pax Euroasiatica and Its Mystical
Antipode .................................................................................... 163
Eurasianism versus Atlanticism .................................................. 167
Tradition and Counter-Tradition .............................................. 170
The Jews and the Crisis of the Modern World ...................... 174
The “Enlightened” Science of Conspirology ............................ 181
Nuremberg versus Auschwitz ...................................................... 182
The Muslim World, Israel, and the Conservative
Revolution ................................................................................ 184
Bibliography .................................................................................. 188
Conclusion ........................................................................................ 193
Dmitry Shlapentokh
Bibliography .................................................................................. 194
Index ................................................................................................ 195

Acknowledgments • ix
Acknowledgments
This book, as well as my other works could not have emerged without
the inspiration and help of many people. I certainly owe a lot to Professor
Jeffrey Brooks, Richard Hellie and Gary Hamburg. I have benefited
from the expertise of many others, such as Alexander Motyl, Roman
Sporluk, Nicholas and Alexander Riasanovsky, John Bushnell, and
Andrzej Walicki, to name a few. I would like to thank Mehdi Parvizi
Amineh for reviewing this book and for his invaluable advice on earlier
drafts of the manuscript. I also could not have produced this book with-
out the patience of my wife Natalia, my mother-in-law Liudmila Mogileva,
and, of course, my parents Vladimir and Liuba. I am also grateful for
the inspiration and prayers of my late grandmother, Raisa Alievskaia,
who taught me never to give up. Finally, this book is dedicated to my
children, whom I wish, as do all parents, to be healthy and happy.
January 19, 2006