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In his timely book, Mikhail Suslov discusses contemporary Russian geopolitical culture and argues that a better knowledge of geopolitical concepts and fantasies is instrumental for understanding Russia's policies. Specifically, he analyzes such concepts as "Eurasianism," "Holy Russia," "Russian civilization," "Russia as a continent," "Novorossia," and others. He demonstrates that these concepts reached unprecedented ascendance in the Russian public debates, tending to overshadow other political and domestic discussions. Suslov argues that the geopolitical imagination, structured by these concepts, defines the identity of post-Soviet Russia, while this complex of geopolitical representations engages, at the same time, with the broader, international criticism of the Western liberal world order and aligns itself with the conservative defense of cultural authenticity across the globe. Geopolitical ideologies and utopias discussed in the book give the post-Soviet political mainstream the intellectual instruments to think about Russia's exclusion-imaginary or otherwise-from the processes of a global world which is re-shaping itself after the end of the Cold War; they provide tools to construct the self-perception of Russia as a sovereign great-power, a self-sufficient civilization, and as one of the poles in a multipolar world; and they help to establish the Messianic vision of Russia as the beacon of order, tradition, and morality in a sea of chaos and corruption.
About the author
Dr. Mikhail Suslov holds a PhD in history from the European University Institute (Florence). Now he is a Marie Curie fellow at Uppsala University's Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Uppsala University. His academic interests include Russian intellectual history, geopolitical ideologies and utopias, religious (Orthodox) political theorization. His most recent publications are: Suslov (2014). "Holy Rus": The Geopolitical Imagination in the Contemporary Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Politics & Law, 52(3); Suslov (2014). "Crimea Is Ours!" Russian popular geopolitics in the new media age. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 55(6).
The author of the foreword:
Fr. Cyril Hovorun is a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate); currently a senior lecturer at Stockholm School of Theology / Sankt Ignatios Academy in Sweden and a researcher at Columbia University.
Report
"Mikhail Suslov's book is a must-read for all those curious to capture the complexity of the notion of 'conservatism' in today's Russia. Delving into past conservative doctrines and the diversity of actors branding conservatism today, the book allows us to move away from a simplistic, Kremlin-centric vision and to get a comprehensive interpretation of the broader phenomenon."-Marlene Laruelle, Research Professor of International Affairs, George Washington University
