Putinism – Post-Soviet Russian Regime Ideology

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. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgements 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 United Russia Party 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: 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: 1990s–mid-2000s Messianism: Expansionist to Isolationist Mainstream Messianic Politics: Mid-2000s to the Present 7. Conclusion Index