Putinism Post-Soviet Russian Regime Ideology

What is Putin's ideology? is a key question for the contemporary world. This book analyses this ideology, which it terms "Putinism".

A key question for the contemporary world: What is Putin's ideology? This book analyses this ideology, which it terms "Putinism". It examines a range of factors that feed into the ideology - conservative thought in Russia from the nineteenth century onwards, Russian and Soviet history and their memorialisation, Russian Orthodox religion and its political connections, a focus on traditional values, and Russia's sense of itself as a unique civilisation, different from the West and due a special, respected place in the world. The book highlights that although the resulting ideology lacks coherence and universalism comparable to that of Soviet-era Marxism-Leninism, it is nevertheless effective in aligning the population to the regime and is flexible and applicable in different circumstances. And that therefore it is not attached to Putin as a person, is likely to outlive him, and is potentially appealing elsewhere in the world outside Russia, especially to countries that feel belittled by the West and let down by the West's failure to resolve problems of global injustice and inequality.

Autorentext

Mikhail Suslov is Associate Professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Inhalt

1 Introduction: Understanding Putinism

Studying Putinism as an Ideology

What Is Putinism*'*s Ideological Identity?

What Is the Meaning of Putinism?

Is There Popular Demand for Putinism?

2 Political Thinkers of the Past in the Service of Putinism

Slavophiles

Anti-mimetism in the Teaching of Slavophiles

Populism in the Ideology of Slavophiles

Ivan Il*'*in in Contemporary Russian Regime Ideology

Il'in in Ideological Debates Today

Il'in's Worldview and the Regime Ideology

Aleksandr Zinov*'*ev

Zinov'ev's Social Theory

Anti-Westernism and the Philosophy of War

3 Conservatism: Brief Engagement and Transformation of the Doctrine

Debates on Ideology in Post-Soviet Russia

Conservative Ideology in the 1990s

Merging Academic Studies of Conservatism and Politics

URP and the Regime Ideology in the 2000s

Turn Away from Conservatism: After 2011/12

4 Ideological Forms of National Iterations

Russian Nationalism or Nationalistic Discourses?

Civilisationism

Ideology of the Russian World

Diaspora as a Political Problem: Dealing with Compatriots

Conceptualisation of Diaspora Before 2014: The Russian World Project

Pan-Slavism

5 Geo-political Ideologies

Greater Eurasia: Large and Central

Large space Thinking and Eurasian Projects

Greater Eurasia: Re-centring Russia

Isolationism in Geo-political Thinking

Geo-political Justice

6 Religious Aspects of Putinism

Ideology of the Russian Orthodox Church

The Theory of Basic Values

Justice and Orthodoxy

Geo-political Dimension of the Basic Values

Historical Unity and the ROC

Russia My History Exhibition

Messianism

Low-cost Messianism in Putin's Russia

Discussions on Messianism: 1990smid-2000s

Messianism: Expansionist to Isolationist

Mainstream Messianic Politics: Mid-2000s to the Present

7 Conclusion