Eurasianism as an Ideology for Russia s Future

Madhavan K Palat Eurasianism was first elaborated immediately after the first world war. It argued for a typology of human civilisations based on cultural uniqueness, hence warning against any European orientation of Russia. It claimed the equal validity of all cultures and questioned theories of progress culminating in Europe. It then reinterpreted Russian history to locate the origins in the Mongol dominion of the 13th-15th centuries. As such Russia is multi-cultural from the beginning for which they advocated the strategy of the 'symphonic personality' inspired in part by Dostoevskii 's 'polyphony' in his novels. Given Russia's present need of a new ideology, Eurasianism could contribute the basis for one.