Alexander Dugin and Eurasianism

Abstract

This chapter discusses the life and work of Alexander Dugin who, since the mid-1990s, has been the best marketed of all Russian ideologists, both in Russia and in the West. Well-read in mainstream philosophy and the humanities, Dugin is an impressive aggregator of radical Right ideologies. He brings together doctrines from diverse origins: völkisch occultism, Traditionalism, Conservative Revolution, European New Right, Eurasianism, and the like. He is the main intellectual figure in Russia to have selected European radical Right doctrinal traditions as his ideological marketing product, and his success at home has been limited. His efforts to influence Russia’s broader geopolitical narrative have prospered, but his work to introduce doctrinal content inspired by the European völkisch tradition has not. Nevertheless, thanks to his well-developed outreach strategies; his ability to speak various European languages, to translate and to be translated; and his networks in several European countries, Dugin has become Russia’s best-known New Right thinker.