Nationalism and (false) Eurasianism in today's Russia

Abstract

The meaning of the term “Eurasianism” has evolved since the Russian Revolution and the early days of the Soviet Union from a doctrine that evoked a multiplicity of cultures and ethnicities joining to shape a Eurasian nation to an assertion of what Moscow considers its geographic sphere of infuence. To explain the context of Russian nationalism today, Dmitry Shlapentokh of Indiana University South Bend documents how Eurasianism has shifted from ideology and national ideal to geopolitical claim.