Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 21:05, 10 January 2025

The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia

Russian edition cover
Author	Aleksandr Dugin
Original title	Основы геополитики
Language	Russian
Publisher	Arktogeja
Publication date	1997
Publication place	Russia
ISBN	978-5-8592-8019-3

This article is part of a series on
Eurasianism
Concepts Anti-Americanism Anti-British sentiment Anti-Western sentiment Neo-Stalinism Nomad studies Nuclear Orthodoxy Primakov doctrine Russian civilization Russian messianism Russian world Scythianism Pochvennichestvo Tellurocracy Thalassocracy
People Karsavin Vernadsky Trubetzkoy Mirsky Suvchinsky Efron Savitsky Chkheidze Gumilev Nazarbayev Perinçek Zyuganov Putin Panarin Dugin Mackinder Eskin Kholmogorov Dugina
Works The Geographical Pivot of History New Chronology Foundations of Geopolitics The Fourth Political Theory
Organisations Amanat Eurasia Party Eurasian Youth Union Falanga Left Opposition Nashi Party of Peace and Unity Patriotic Party Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine Proryv Smenovekhovtsy Youth Union of Turkey
Related topics Hellenoturkism Intermediate Region National Bolshevism Neo-Sovietism Pan-Slavism Putinism Ruscism Russian imperialism Russian irredentism Russian nationalism Turanism
v t e

The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia (Russian: Основы геополитики: геополитическое будущее России) is a geopolitical book by Aleksandr Dugin. Its publication in 1997 was well received in Russia; it has had significant influence within the Russian military, police forces, and foreign policy elites, and has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military. Powerful Russian political figures subsequently took an interest in Dugin, a Russian political analyst who espouses an ultra-nationalist and neo-fascist ideology based on his idea of neo-Eurasianism, who has developed a close relationship with Russia's Academy of the General Staff.

Dugin credits General Nikolai Klokotov of the Academy of the General Staff as co-author and his main inspiration, though Klokotov denies this. Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, head of the International Department of the Russian Ministry of Defence, helped draft the book.

Policy usage

Klokotov stated that in the future the book would "serve as a mighty ideological foundation for preparing a new military command". Dugin has asserted that the book has been adopted as a textbook in many Russian educational institutions. Former speaker of the Russian State Duma, Gennadiy Seleznyov, for whom Dugin was adviser on geopolitics, "urged that Dugin's geopolitical doctrine be made a compulsory part of the school curriculum".

Eurasianist foreign policy doctrine

This article is part of a series on
Conservatism in Russia
Ideologies Eurasianism Duginism Monarchism Tsarism Populism Putinism Russian nationalism All-Russian Christian Ultra Slavophilia Pochvennichestvo Traditionalist conservatism
Principles Authority Autocracy Bureaucracy Byzantinism Duty Economic interventionism Familialism Imperialism Irredentism Law and order Orthodox values Nuclear Orthodoxy Moscow, third Rome  Patriotism Reactionism Russian culture Russification Sobornost Social hierarchy Social order Sovereign democracy Statism
History Black Hundreds Great Russia Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality Russian Empire White movement White Army White émigré Zemstvo
Intellectuals Aksakov Boot Chudinova Dostoevsky Dugin Frank Ilyin Karamzin Katkov Khomyakov Leontiev von Lilienfeld Obolensky Pobedonostsev Prokhanov Rozanov Semyonov Shafarevich Shcherbatov Solovyov Solzhenitsyn Sorokin Strakhov Surkov Tikhomirov Tikhon Trubetskoy Uvarov Vikulov von Wrangel Yuryev Zhukovsky
Literature St Petersburg Dialogues (1821) The Organic Theory of Societies (1873) Sociology of Revolution 1925 The Gulag Archipelago (1973) Foundations of Geopolitics (1997) The Notre Dame de Paris Mosque (2005) The Fourth Political Theory (2009)
Politicians Alexander I Alexander III Butina Dubrovin Durnovo Gryzlov Kolchak Kornilov von Lilienfeld Luzhkov Malyshkin Mizulina Nicholas I Nicholas II Pikhno Pobedonostsev Putin Rodzianko Rogozin Rostopchin Sadovnichiy Shulgin Slutsky Surkov Tolstoy von Ungern Uvarov Vladimir Volodin Yuryev Zhirinovsky
PartiesActive Eurasia Party Great Russia Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Monarchist Party of Russia Rodina Russian All-People's Union Union of Right Forces United Russia Defunct For Truth Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union People's Union Pamyat Society Union of the Russian People
Organisations All-Russia People's Front Izborsky Club Krepostniki National Alliance of Russian Solidarists Union of the Russian People
Media Elementy (Defunct) Kievlyanin Kozma Minin Nash Sovremennik Russkoye Znamya Zavtra Znamya
Related topics Anti-Americanism Anti-Chechenism Anti-communism Anti-Islamism Anti-Polonism Antisemitism Anti-Tatarism Anti-Turkism Anti-Ukrainianism Politics of Russia Liberalism Russia for Russians Russia under Vladimir Putin Serfdom in Russia Silovik
Conservatism portal Russia portal
v t e

Eurasianist sentiments have been on the rise across Russian society since the ascent of Vladimir Putin in the country. In a poll conducted by Levada Center in 2021, 64% of Russian citizens identify Russia as a non-European country; while only 29% regarded Russia to be part of Europe.

In 2023, Russia adopted a Eurasianist, anti-Western foreign policy in a document titled "The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation", approved by Vladimir Putin. The document defines Russia as a "unique country-civilization and a vast Eurasian and Euro-Pacific power" that seeks to create a "Greater Eurasian Partnership" by pursuing close relations with China, India, countries of the Islamic world and the rest of the Global South (Latin America and Southern Africa). The policy identifies United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries as "the main inspirer, organizer, and executor of the aggressive anti-Russian policy of the collective West" and seeks the end of geopolitical American dominance in the international scene. The document also adopts a neo-Soviet posture, positioning Russia as the successor state of USSR and calls for spreading "accurate information" about the "decisive contribution of the Soviet Union" in shaping the post-WWII international order and the United Nations.

Content

In Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin makes a distinction between "Atlantic" and "Eurasian" societies, which means, as Benjamin R. Teitelbaum describes it: "between societies whose coastal geographical position made them cosmopolitan and landlocked societies oriented toward preservation and cohesion". Dugin calls for the "Atlantic societies", primarily represented by the United States, to lose their broader geopolitical influence in Eurasia, and for Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances.

The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution". The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the U.S., and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us." Dugin seems not to rule out the possibility of Russia joining and/or even supporting the European Union and NATO instrumentally in a pragmatic way of further Western subversion against geopolitical "Americanism".

Outside of Ukraine and Georgia, military operations play a relatively minor role except for the military intelligence operations. The textbook advocates a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian secret services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries. The book states that "the maximum task is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".

In Europe:

• Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. The Kaliningrad Oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow–Berlin axis".
• France should be encouraged to form a bloc with Germany, as they both have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".
• The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from the European Union.
• Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".
• Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.
• Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian–Russian sphere, although he later writes that they should be integrated into Russia rather than obtaining national independence.
• Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia and the Republic of North Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.
• Belarus and Moldova are to become part of Russia, not independent.
• Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere. This may involve splitting Poland between German and Russian spheres of influence.
• Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, "Serbian Bosnia", and Greece – "Orthodox Christian collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".
• Ukraine (except Western Ukraine) should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible according to Western political standards. As mentioned, Western Ukraine (comprising the regions of Volynia, Galicia, and Transcarpathia), considering its Catholic-majority population, are permitted to form an independent federation of Western Ukraine but should not be under Atlanticist control.

In the Middle East and Central Asia:

• The book stresses the "continental Russian–Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization".
• Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow–Tehran axis".
• Armenia has a special role: It will serve as a "strategic base," and it is necessary to create "the axis Moscow-Yerevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people ... the Iranians and the Kurds".
• Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.
• Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians, and other minorities (such as Greeks) to attack the ruling Turkish regime.
• The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan).

In East and Southeast Asia:

• Dugin envisions the fall of China. The People's Republic of China, which represents an extreme geopolitical danger as an ideological enemy to the independent Russian Federation, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet–Xinjiang–Inner Mongolia–Manchuria as a security belt. Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensation.
• Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism, to "be a friend of Japan".
• Mongolia should be absorbed into the Eurasian sphere.

The book emphasizes that Russia must spread geopolitical anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S."

The West

In the Americas, United States, and Canada:

• Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present-day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".
• The Eurasian Project could be expanded to Central and South America.

Reception and impact

Hoover Institution senior fellow John B. Dunlop stated that "the impact of this intended 'Eurasianist' textbook on key Russian elites testifies to the worrisome rise of neo-fascist ideas and sentiments during the late Yeltsin and the Putin period". Historian Timothy D. Snyder wrote in The New York Review of Books that Foundations of Geopolitics is influenced by the work of Carl Schmitt, a proponent of a conservative international order whose work influenced the Nazis. He also noted Dugin's key role in forwarding the ideologies of Eurasianism and National Bolshevism.

The book was described by Foreign Policy as "one of the most curious, impressive, and terrifying books to come out of Russia during the entire post-Soviet era", and "more sober than Dugin's previous books, better argued, and shorn of occult references, numerology, traditionalism and other eccentric metaphysics". In 2022, Foreign Policy also noted: "The recent invasion of Ukraine is a continuation of a Dugin-promoted strategy for weakening the international liberal order." According to Anton Shekhovtsov, the book's cover contains a depiction of a Chaos Star, a symbol that represents chaos magick in modern occult movements, and the use of the symbol aligns with Dugin's general interest in the occult and occult symbolism. After the publication of the book, Dugin has also used the symbol as the logo of his Eurasia Party.

See also

Related topics

• 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine
• Accession of Ukraine to the European Union
• Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
• Anti-war protests in Russia (2022–present)
• Derussification in Ukraine
• Geopolitics of Russia
  • All-Russian nation
  • Eurasianism
  • Moscow, third Rome
  • Opposition to the Euromaidan
  • Russian separatist forces in Ukraine
  • Russian world
  • Ruscism
• International recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic
• Krasovsky case
• Media portrayal of the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Russian imperialism
• Russian irredentism
• Russian nationalism
• Ukraine–NATO relations
• War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the Russo-Ukrainian War
  • Bucha massacre
  • Child abductions in the Russo-Ukrainian War

Related literature

• "Address concerning the events in Ukraine", 2022 speech by Vladimir Putin
• "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", 2021 essay by Putin
• "On conducting a special military operation", 2022 speech by Putin
• "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine", 2022 article by Timofey Sergeytsev
• "Where have you been for eight years?", a phrase used during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

References

1. ^ Dunlop, John B. (July 30, 2004). "Russia's New—and Frightening—'Ism'". Hoover Institution. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
2. ^ Burbank, Jane (22 March 2022). "The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 23 March 2022. After unsuccessful interventions in post-Soviet party politics, Mr. Dugin focused on developing his influence where it counted — with the military and policymakers. With the publication in 1997 of his 600-page textbook, loftily titled 'The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia,' Eurasianism moved to the center of strategists' political imagination. In Mr. Dugin's adjustment of Eurasianism to present conditions, Russia had a new opponent — no longer just Europe, but the whole of the 'Atlantic' world led by the United States.
3. ^ "The Unlikely Origins of Russia's Manifest Destiny". Foreign Policy. 27 July 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
4. Liverant, Yigal (Winter 2009). "The Prophet of the New Russian Empire". Azure (35). Jerusalem: Shalem Center. ISSN 0793-6664. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
5. Shekhovtsov, Anton; Umland, Andreas (October 2009). "Is Aleksandr Dugin a Traditionalist? 'Neo-Eurasianism' and Perennial Philosophy". The Russian Review. 68 (4). Wiley: 662–678. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9434.2009.00544.x. JSTOR 20621114.
6. Lavelle, Peter (2003). Uncovering Russia (excerpt: A civil society without civility). Norasco Publishing. pp. 379–380. ISBN 0972970800.
7. Firth, Charles (March 4, 2017). "1990s Manifesto outlining Russia's plans is starting to come true". news.com.au. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
8. Mankoff, Jeffrey (October 17, 2011). Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9781442208261.
9. ^ Dunlop, John (January 31, 2004). "Aleksandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics" (PDF). Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. 12 (1). Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (George Washington University): 41. ISSN 1074-6846. OCLC 222569720. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2016.
10. Toal, Gerard (2017). Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest Over Ukraine and the Caucasus. Oxford University Press. p. 78. ISBN 9780190253301.
11. "Russia and Europe". Levada Center. 22 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023.
12. "Russia adopts new anti-West foreign policy strategy". Deutsche Welle. 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023.
13. Gould-Davies, Nigel (6 April 2023). "Russia's new foreign-policy concept: the impact of war". IISS. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023.
14. "The Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation". Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union. 1 March 2023. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023.
15. Teitelbaum, Benjamin R. (21 April 2020). War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right. Penguin Books Limited. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-14-199204-4.
16. Von Drehle, David (22 March 2022). "The man known as 'Putin's brain' envisions the splitting of Europe — and the fall of China". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Retrieved 22 March 2022. In his magnum opus, The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia, published in 1997, Dugin mapped out the game plan in detail. Russian agents should foment racial, religious, and sectional divisions within the United States while promoting the United States' isolationist factions. In Great Britain, the psy-ops effort should focus on exacerbating historic rifts with Continental Europe and separatist movements in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
17. Snyder, Timothy (20 March 2014). "Fascism, Russia, and Ukraine". The New York Review of Books. 61 (5). Archived from the original on 2016-01-27. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
18. Young, Benjamin (March 6, 2022). "Putin Has a Grimly Absolute Vision of the 'Russian World'". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
19. Shekhovtsov, Anton (2008-12-01). "The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism: Ideas of Rebirth in Aleksandr Dugin's Worldview". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 9 (4): 491–506. doi:10.1080/14690760802436142. ISSN 1469-0764. S2CID 144301027. Occult symbolism plays another important role in Dugin's ideological imagery. The eight-arrow star that became an official symbol of Dugin's organisation had first appeared on the cover of Osnovy geopolitiki, posited in the centre of the outline map of Eurasia. Misleadingly identified by Ingram as a swastika, this symbol is a modified 'Star of Chaos' and can be presumed to refer to 'Chaos Magick', an occult doctrine based on the writings of Crowley, Austin Osman Spare and Peter Carroll.

External links

• Foundations of Geopolitics – Russian edition
• Foundations of Geopolitics – Machine-translated English version
• Review of Foundations of Geopolitics by John B. Dunlop

v t e Russian nationalism
History	Expansionism, imperialism and Russification 1500–1800 Siberia Khanate of Sibir Central Asia North America Partitions of Poland Crimea, 1783 Amur Caucasus Military occupations Crimea, 2014 Ukrainian language suppression Slavophilia and westernism Pochvennichestvo Black Hundreds Mladorossy Galician Russophilia White movement Smenovekhovtsy Solidarists 1993 constitutional crisis National Salvation Front Russian marches 2010 Manezhnaya Square riots [ru] 2013 Biryulyovo riots 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine Russian invasion of Ukraine
Concepts	All-Russian nation Collector of Russian lands Emperor of all the Russias Little Russian identity Ethnic nationalism Eurasia Gayrope Holy Rus Moscow, third Rome Nuclear Orthodoxy Of all Rus' [ru; uk] Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality Orthodoxy or death! Russia for Russians Russian civilization Russian Idea Russian irredentism Russian-occupied territories Krymnash Russian soul "Russian world" Russophilia and Russophobia United and Indivisible Russia [ru; uk]
Ideologies	Eurasianism Far-right politics National Bolshevism Neo-Nazism Neo-Sovietism Neo-Stalinism Pan-Slavism Putinism Ruscism Soviet patriotism
Modern organizations	Active Atomwaffen Division Russland Black Hundreds (1992) Club of Angry Patriots Angry patriots Donetsk Republic Essence of Time Ethnic National Union Eurasia Movement Eurasia Party Eurasian Youth Union Free Donbas Great Russia Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Lithuanian People's Party Narodny Sobor National Socialism / White Power Obnovlenie The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov Popular Resistance Association Right Bloc Rodina Russian All-People's Union Russian Imperial Movement Russian National Front Russians Russkiy Mir Foundation Serbian Party Oathkeepers Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers United Russia Young Guard of United Russia Defunct Artpodgotovka Combat Terrorist Organization Congress of Russian Communities Format18 Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union Male State Movement Against Illegal Immigration Nation and Freedom Committee National Bolshevik Party National Russian Liberation Movement National Socialist Society Northern Brotherhood Pamyat People's National Party Russian All-National Union Russian National Socialist Party Russian National Union Russian National Unity New Russian National Unity The Savior Slavic Union Union of the Russian People
Personalities	After 1991 Viktor Alksnis Sergey Baburin Alexander Barkashov Alexander Belov-Potkin Dmitry Demushkin Aleksandr Dugin Dmitry Galkovsky Aleksandr Ivanov-Sukharevsky Konstantin Kasimovsky Yegor Kholmogorov Konstantin Krylov Vladimir Kvachkov Alexander Lebed Eduard Limonov Vyacheslav Maltsev Maxim Martsinkevich Zakhar Prilepin Vladimir Putin Dmitry Rogozin Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Igor Shafarevich Dmitri Vasilyev Vladimir Zhirinovsky Gennady Zyuganov Before 1991 Ivan Ilyin Pyotr Krasnov Konstantin Rodzaevsky Mikhail Skobelev Ivan Solonevich Vasily Shulgin
Media	Fashist The Fourth Political Theory Foundations of Geopolitics History: Fiction or Science? The Last Will of a Russian Fascist Nash Put' "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" "Rebuilding Russia [ru]" Sputnik and Pogrom "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine"
Opposition and criticism	Great Russian chauvinism Iazychie Nashism Ruscism Prison of peoples Pobedobesie Vatnik Volos Declaration
Category

• 1997 non-fiction books
• Russian invasion of Ukraine in popular culture
• Anti-American sentiment in Russia
• Books about civilizations
• Eurasianism
• Neo-fascism in Russia
• Foreign relations of Russia
• Geopolitical rivalry
• Military education and training in Russia
• Military training books
• National Bolshevism
• Political books
• Russian non-fiction books
• Works about geopolitics
• Russian philosophy