The Reconstitution of the Eurasian Idea

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-29-2022

Subject: LCSH

Eurasian school, Russo-Ukrainian War, 2014-

Abstract

Like Germany in the decade after Versailles, the 1990s for Russia have seen not only the implosion of the Soviet State and its sustaining idea but also the failure of the original democratic impulse that gave birth to Yeltsin’s federation as well as the subsequent dissolution, if not outright collapse, of the democratic-federative idea at its core. With the economic collapse in 1998 and the ascension to power of Vladimir Putin in 1999, Russian political elites were desperately searching for an alternative political philosophy to what they saw as an increasingly corrupt and emasculating situation. In the words of one commentator, many in Russia saw Putin’s official election in 2000 as marking, “… a clear watershed dividing the different historical epochs. In their search for an ideological framework for the future, many in Russia are looking to the past.”

Comments

Article is from Dr. Schmidt's personal website. He introduces this article as follows, "This essay explores the Eurasianist idea that underlays Putin’s theory for war in Ukraine, and suggests that he is not deterrable as Western policy understands the idea."

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