Eurasionism of Alexander Dugin Author: Irene McMann, University of Washington

Abstract: Alexandr Dugin became a prominent figure in Russian political horizon of the beginning of the new century. He is the leader of the contemporary Eurasianism, a very prolific writer and experienced public speaker. He gives interviews, publishes books and articles, edits on line portals and magazines, teaches at the New University and still has time for the numerous TV appearances. Dugin’s energy and promotion talents bring him popularity and followers in different circles of Russian society. In Russian editions most of his books are entitled as philosophical and he calls himself a philosopher However, it needs to be specified that philosopher in Russia is traditionally associated not as much as a scholar or an academic, and more an ‘engineer of a human souls,’ a writer, a sage. Dugin attempts to present a basis not only for the further development of the Slavophil Russian idea but articulates the contemporary anti-western and specifically anti-American disposition. Slavophils and westerners are the deep trends in Russian social thought, Dugin, however, refocuses his anti-westernism onto anti-Americanism, which is for him a logical development of the classical slavophilism. He writes, “USA is the sum of the West, its geopolitical, ideological and religious avangard. USA is the embodiment of the West, western capitalism, its center and its axis, its essence.” Dugin’s Eurasionism is the foundation of not only nationalistic movements in Russia but also growing anti-Americanism.