Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMOUniversity Alexander

Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University) Alexander Shishkin Department of Philosophy History of Russian Philosophy Lecture 13 Russian Émigré Philosophy

Early Eurasianists Russian History as Viewed from the East • Nikolai Trubetskoy (1890 – 1938) • Pyotr Savitsky (1895 – 1968) • Pyotr Suvchinsky (1892 – 1985) • Georges Florovsky (1893 – 1979)

Early Eurasianists Russian History as Viewed from the East Principal Writings • Exodus to East: Anticipations and Accomplishments [Book 1] (1921) • On the Ways: The Affirmations of the Eurasianists [Book 2] (1922) • Russia and the Latindom (1923) • The Eurasianist Yearbook [Books 3‑ 5] (1923 – 1937) • Nikolai Trubetskoy. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: The Glance to Russian History not from the West, but from the East (1925) • The Eurasianist Collection [Book 6] (1929) • The Thirties [Book 7] (1931)

Early Eurasianists Anti-Europeanism • Europe and Russia § Europe has achieved its scientific and technological supremacy at the expense of ideological and religious. § Its culture is dominated by “militant economism”. § Europe’s “original sin” is rationalism. § The task of Orthodox philosophy is to provide intelligent expression to intuitions and insights of Divine Providence that transcend ordinary logic. • Catholicism and Orthodoxy § Catholicism centers on the idea of sin and crime; Orthodoxy, on that of salvation and redemption. § Orthodoxy establishes itself vertically: deep and upwards; Catholicism, on the horizontal plane it seeks to control. § Latindom is worse than Bolshevism, for Bolsheviks damage bodies whereas Catholics damage souls.

Early Eurasianists Eurasia • The Continental Nature of Eurasia § The dichotomy of the West (Europe) and the East (Asia) is inadequate; the natural division would be that into Europe, Asia and Eurasia. § Eurasia encompasses the three great continental plains: the East European (“the White Sea/Caucasian”), the West Siberian and the Turan (“Turkestan”) plains. § Geography itself has predestined Eurasia to be the territory of a single state. § The backbone of Eurasia is the Great Steppe; whoever rules the Steppe, rules Eurasia. § The world economy is oceanic; not to be marginalised, Russia/Eurasia must develop intracontinental economy. • The Turan Personality Type § Russians are neither European, nor Asians; they are Eurasians, the mixture of Slavs with the Ural-Altaic (“Turanic”) peoples. § The union of Byzantine Orthodoxy and Turanic psychology has created a strong alloy that began to erode only in the post-Petrine era.

Early Eurasianists Russian History as Viewed from the East • Kievan Rus § The backbone of Kievan Rus was the water trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”. § Having lost control of the Dnieper mouth Kievan Rus was doomed; it was lucky to be conquered by the Mongols, rather than the Europeans. • The Tatar-Mongol Statehood § Genghis Khan accomplished the great task of uniting Eurasia; his empire was succeeded by the Russian Empire and the USSR. § Genghis Khan’s political system allowed for broad religious tolerance; in Russia the Tatar conquest led to a religious upsurge. § The Tatars united Russia; the Russian idea of state is of Tatar, not Byzantine origin. § There was no such event as “the overthrow of the Tatar yoke”; what actually happened is better viewed as a change of dynasty followed by the transfer of the Khanate capital to Moscow, whose princes and czars further expanded the power of the Khans.

Early Eurasianists Russian History as Viewed from the East • The Imperial Era § Rather than bringing Russia up, Peter I sought to turn it into a great power modeled on the European types in a single stroke. § Peter I accomplished the task of adopting European technologies at the expense of the estrangement of the upper classes from the national culture. § Thanks to Peter I, the Byzantium’s best pupil was turned into the perpetual outsider of the West. § The Russian imperial policies were both antinational and anti. Christian, the upper circles all looking to the West: Ø the “ruling elite” championed imperialism, militarism, chauvinism, exploitative capitalism; Ø the “civil society” was after liberalism, parliamentarianism, socialism. § The World War was the tragic outcome of Russia’s involvement into alien politics of Europe; it widened the breach between the upper and the lower strata and that abyss “swallowed” Russia.

Early Eurasianists Russian History as Viewed from the East • The 1917 Revolution and the Civil War § The February Revolution was the work of the thin upper stratum that did not last long. § The October Revolution meted out justice to the Petersburg era of Russian history: the people espoused the slogans of class struggle not so much to be quits with the propertied classes, as to be quits with people of alien culture and faith. § The White Movement lost because it sought to restore either the Empire, or democracy, both Western and hence alien. § The outcome was paradoxical: the revolution’s goal was decisive Westernisation of Russia; instead Russia found itself expelled from Europe. § The Bolsheviks do not lead the revolutionary masses; on the contrary, the revolutionary masses lead the Bolsheviks: genuine Russia, the Russo-Turanic Russia-Eurasia comes to the fore.

Questions?