Russia’s Futures, from Fairy Tales and Editorials to Kremlin Narratives: Prokhanov, Dugin, Surkov

Abstract

The article examines narratives of Russia’s geopolitical future that originate in NeoEurasianist ideology. These narratives, rooted in the pre-war Russian émigré school of historiography, identify Russia’s special civilisational destiny as a land-based power that makes it distinct from Western sea powers. These narratives have circulated among Russia’s right-wing intelligentsia since the late 1980s and have recently become mainstream. Their partial adoption by the Kremlin ideologists demonstrates their exceptional staying power and also raises questions about how the Russian ruling elite sees the future. The case studies selected here include the writings of the veteran author Aleksandr Prokhanov, influential theorist Aleksandr Dugin, and the Kremlin advisor Vladislav Surkov. We argue that while Prokhanov’s and Dugin’s visions are based on eschatological notions rooted in the Russia’s pre-Petrine past and in folklore. Surkov’s programmatic article that takes some of the same notions as its point of departure is nonetheless a poor attempt at imagining a future as an indefinitely suspended present of the Putin regime.