Between Europe and Asia : the origins, theories, and legacies of Russian Eurasianism /

In the aftermath of the upheaval of WW I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian civil war, émigré intellectuals from the former Russian Empire came to develop a loosely defined movement called Eurasianism. Historians, geographers, scientists, literary figures, and others joined in their criticism of Western civilization and European imperialism to foster a vision of a Eurasia (essentially, the space of the former Russian Empire) that was united by a unique identity forged through benevolent empire and colonization, the conservative values of Orthodoxy, and interpretations of history and geography that posited a natural and inevitable interconnectedness between Russia and Asia. This volume includes ten chapters by different authors who explore the topics of 19th-century theorists who contributed to Eurasianist thought, influential 1920s and 1930s Eurasianists, Eurasianism in the late Soviet era, and the emergence of a neo-Eurasianism in the post-Soviet 1990s and 2000s. This format provides a helpful overview of the movement that creates synthesis in a complex subject and, at the same time, offers new and insightful research that illuminates diversity and contradictions in Eurasianism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Melissa Chakars, Saint Joseph's University