Geopolitical Imagination

This timely book surveys key themes and tendencies in the development of conservative ideology in Russia. Mikhail Suslov argues that Russia’s historical experience of Westernization and the geopolitical struggle for recognition led her conservatism towards critical reflection about Russia’s cultural authenticity and its place in the world. As a result, unlike canonical ‘Western’ versions of conservatism, the Russian one was not only a response to liberal and revolutionary ideas and practice, but also an opposition to the worldview of the ‘Westernizers’.

In today’s Russia, Putinism is making cautious attempts to lean upon some forms of ideological legitimation associated with ‘traditional values’ discourses. In this context, the ruling party ‘United Russia’ proclaimed conservatism its ideology in 2009. The Russian version of conservatism substantiates the anti-Westernism of Russia’s official line, but as an ideology, its nature is too paradoxical to become a long-term ally of the regime. Suslov analyzes these paradoxes and dilemmas by the examples of late-imperial neo-Slavophilism, émigré conservatism, underground right-wing dissident movement, and post-Soviet conservative streaks of thought.