Nationalities Papers, Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2004 The Two Faces of Contemporary Eurasianism: An Imperial Version of Russian Nationalism Marle `ne Laruelle The Eurasianist ideology is coming back on the Russian political and intellectual scene but also among the Turkic and Muslim elites in the Russian Federation and in Kazakhstan. The political, economic, social and identity difficulties of the transition invite Russians and other post-Soviet citizens to think about their relations with Europe and about the relevance of taking the West as a model. In this context of destabilization, Eurasianism proposes a geopolitical solution for the post-Soviet space. It presupposes the existence of a third continent between East and West, called “Eurasia,” and supports the idea of an organic unity of cultures born in this zone of symbiosis between Russian, Turkic, Muslim and even Chinese worlds 1 . Neo- Eurasianism is the main ideology born among the different Russian conservative movements in the 1990s. Its theories are very little known, but the idea of an entity called Eurasia, regrouping the center of the old continent in which Russia would be “at home,” is more and more rife. It attracted many intellectuals and politicians in the first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Eurasianism was a way to explain the “disaster.” Eurasianism has not succeeded in presenting itself as a structured movement proposing at the same time a social, economic and political project. It is less a political party than a Weltanschauung of some Russian public personalities. Never- theless, this movement today occupies a much stronger position than the small number of its real supporters might lead us to suppose. It is updating the traditional Slavophile ideology supposed to demonstrate the national specificity of Russia and the organic character of its empire: it is the expression not of an ethnic nationalism but of an imperialistic and state one. Until now, the Eurasianist movement had an imprecise and individualized ideology, according to the personality of their leader. Today, some currents which have a direct access to a large public, are beginning to predominate on the other Eurasianist groups. The politicization of Eurasianism reached a new phase in spring 2001 with the creation of Alexandr Dugin’s party and the Niazov’s Eurasianist Party; the latter aims to gather the Muslim minorities living in Russia. Western studies on the textual analysis of Eurasianism and neo-Eurasianism are lacking. This ideology ought to be clarified, since studies in Russia on Eurasianism are monopolized by its supporters. However, Eurasianism must be explained in its ISSN 0090-5992 print; ISSN 1465-3923 online/04/010115-22  2004 Association for the Study of Nationalities DOI: 10.1080/0090599042000186197