Aleksandr Dugin

Aleksandr Dugin
Born	Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin January 7, 1962 (1962-01-07) (age 49) Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ге́льевич Ду́гин, born 7 January 1962) is a politologist and one of the most popular ideologists of Russian expansionism, nationalism, and fascism,^[1][2][3][4] with close ties to the Kremlin and Russian military.^[5] He was the leading organizer of National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party. His political activities are directed toward restoration of the Russian Empire through partitioning of the former Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Ukraine, and unification with Russian-speaking territories, especially Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.^[6][7] He is known for the book Foundations of Geopolitics.

Early life and education

Dugin was born in Moscow, into a family of a high-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer.^[5] His mother was a doctor. In 1979 he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute.

Early career and political views

See also: Foundations of Geopolitics

Dugin worked as a journalist before becoming involved in politics just before the fall of communism. In 1988 he and his friend Geydar Dzhemal joined the nationalist group Pamyat. He helped to write the political program for the newly refounded Communist Party of the Russian Federation under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov.^[5]

In his 1997 article “Fascism – Borderless and Red”, Dugin exclaimed the arrival of a “genuine, true, radically revolutionary and consistent, fascist fascism” in Russia. He believes that it was "...by no means the racist and chauvinist aspects of National Socialism that determined the nature of its ideology. The excesses of this ideology in Germany are a matter exclusively of the Germans, ...while Russian fascism is a combination of natural national conservatism with a passionate desire for true changes.".^[8] "Waffen-SS and especially the scientific sector of this organization, Ahnenerbe," was "an intellectual oasis in the framework of the National Socialist regime", according to him.^[8]

Dugin soon began publishing his own journal entitled Elementy which initially began by praising Franco-Belgian Jean-François Thiriart, supporter of a Europe "from Dublin to Vladivostok." Consistently glorifying both Tsarist and Stalinist Russia, Elementy also revealed Dugin's admiration for Julius Evola. Dugin also collaborated with the weekly journal Den (The Day), a bastion of Russian anti-Cosmopolitanism previously directed by Alexander Prokhanov.^[5]

Dugin was amongst the earliest members of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and convinced Eduard Limonov to enter the political arena in 1994. A part of hard-line nationalist NBP members, supported by Dugin split off to form the more right-wing, anti-liberal, anti-left, anti-Kasparov aggressive nationalist organization, National Bolshevik Front. After breaking with Limonov, he became close to Yevgeny Primakov and later to Vladimir Putin's circle.^[9]

Formation of The Eurasia Movement

The Eurasia Party, later Eurasia Movement, was officially recognized by the Ministry of Justice on May 31, 2001.^[5] The Eurasia Party claims support by some military circles and by leaders of the Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish faiths in Russia, and the party hopes to play a key role in attempts to resolve the Chechen problem, with the objective of setting the stage for Dugin's dream of a Russian strategic alliance with European and Middle Eastern states, primarily Iran. Dugin's ideas, particularly those on "a Turkic-Slavic alliance in the Eurasian sphere" have recently become popular among certain nationalistic circles in Turkey, most notably among alleged members of the Ergenekon network, which is the subject of a high-profile trial (on charges of conspiracy). Dugin also advocates for a Russo-Arab alliance.^[10]

“	In principle, Eurasia and our space, the heartland Russia, remain the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution." ..."The new Eurasian empire will be constructed on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us. This common civilizational impulse will be the basis of a political and strategic union.	”
—The Basics of Geopolitics (1997)

He has criticized the "Euro-Atlantic" involvement in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election as a scheme to create a "cordon sanitaire" around Russia, much like the British attempt post-World War I.

Dugin has criticized Putin for the "loss" of Ukraine, and accused his Eurasianism of being "empty." In 2005 he announced the creation of an anti-Orange youth front to fight similar threats to Russia. The Eurasian Youth Union created and sponsored by Dugin was accused of vandalism and extrimist activities. The organization was banned in Ukraine by the courts and Alexander Dugin was declared persona non grata due to his anti-Ukrainian activities.^[11][12]

Before war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Dugin visited South Ossetia and predicted, "Our troops will occupy the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the entire country, and perhaps even Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which is historically part of Russia, anyway."^[13] Afterwards he said Russia should "not stop at liberating South Ossetia but should move further," and "we have to do something similar in Ukraine."^[14]

Dugin's works

• Pop-kultura i znaki vremeni, Amphora (2005)
• Absoliutnaia rodina, Arktogeia-tsentr (1999)
• Tampliery proletariata: natsional-bol'shevizm i initsiatsiia, Arktogeia (1997)
• Osnovy geopolitiki: geopoliticheskoe budushchee Rossii, Arktogeia (1997)
• Metafizika blagoi vesti: Pravoslavnyi ezoterizm, Arktogeia (1996)
• Misterii Evrazii, Arktogeia (1996)
• Konservativnaia revoliutsiia, Arktogeia (1994)
• Conspirology (Russian)

See also

• Eurasianism
• Intermediate Region
• Eurasian Youth Union
• Foundations of Geopolitics

References

1. ^ Anton Shekhovtsov, "The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism: Ideas of Rebirth in Aleksandr Dugin’s Worldview", Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2008), pp. 491-506.
2. ^ Anton Shekhovtsov, "Aleksandr Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianism: The New Right à la Russe", Religion Compass: Political Religions, Vol. 3, No. 4 (2009), pp. 697-716.
3. ^ Alan Ingram, "Alexander Dugin: Geopolitics and Neo-Fascism in Post-Soviet Russia", Political Geography, Vol. 20, No. 8 (2001), pp. 1029-1051.
4. ^ Stephen Shenfield, Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, Movements (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), p. 195.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Aleksandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics by John B. Dunlop
6. ^ Robert Horvath, Beware the rise of Russia's new imperialism, The Age, August 21, 2008
7. ^ His interview at Echo of Moscow (Russian)
8. ^ ^{a b} Andreas Umland, Will United Russia become a fascist party?, Turkish Daily News, Tuesday, April 15, 2008
9. ^ Jeffrey Mankoff, Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009, p.66-67
10. ^ "Russian nationalist advocates Eurasian alliance against the U.S.". Los Angeles Times. 2008-09-04. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-dugin4-2008sep04,0,2871108.story?page=1. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
11. ^ "SBU singled out people responsible for Hoveral attack" (in Ukrainian). Novynar. 20 October 2007.
12. ^ "NEO-EURASIANIST ALEXANDER DUGIN ON THE RUSSIA-GEORGIA CONFLIC" . Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Analyst. 3 September 2008.
13. ^ Road to War in Georgia: The Chronicle of a Caucasian Tragedy, Spiegel, August 25, 2008.
14. ^ (Russian) Interview with Alexander Dugin, Ekho Moskvy, August 8, 2008.

External links

• Biography, International Eurasianist Movement {several languages}
• Arctogaia (English) (German) (Italian)
• Eurasia Movement (Archived 2009-10-25) (English)
• Yigal Liverant, "The Prophet of the New Russian Empire", Azure (Winter 2009).
• "Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right?"
• Eurasia, rivista di studi geopolitici (Italian)

Persondata
Name	Dugin, Aleksandr Gelyevich
Alternative names	Дугин, Александр Гельевич (Russian)
Short description	Russian politologist
Date of birth	7 January 1962
Place of birth	Moscow
Date of death
Place of death