Aleksandr Dugin and the Rise of the Rightwing in Russia

Aleksandr Dugin wants Russia to take over the world.  On the back cover of his 2012 book, "The Fourth Political Theory," it says, “For more than a decade he has been an advisor to Vladimir Putin and others in the Kremlin on geopolitical matters.” His “fourth political theory” can be summarized in three words: Destroy the West. Dugin is an influential intellectual and popular political commentator in Russia. He’s the author of an earlier non-fiction work, “Fundamentals of Geopolitics," and he teaches at Lomonosov Moscow State University. He also founded the “International Eurasian Movement” and the "Eurasian Union of Youth.” In 1998, Dugin was appointed as an advisor to the Chairman of the State Duma and he has also been an advisor to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Dugin earned a reputation as a fascist with his 1997 essay, "Fascism – Borderless and Red." In it, he anticipated a future fascist Russia: “ . . . not a faded, brownish-pinkish national capitalism, but the blinding dawn of a new Russian Revolution, fascism – borderless as our lands, and red as our blood . . ."

	Although Aleksandr Dugin is well-known in Russia and he was an early supporter of far-right nationalist groups in Western Europe, like Bloc Identitaire, his name comes up for the first time in the US, lately, in connection with Ukraine. Yesterday, The Daily Beast ran a piece about the arrest of a Eurasian Union of Youth member in Ukraine. The Guardian mentioned him recently, too. Foreign Affairs also published a piece about him last week. A 2009 article in Open Democracy is worth a read, as well. (There are links at the bottom of the page.)
In “The Fourth Political Theory” Dugin writes about Russia’s predicament in the post-Soviet era. Without Communism, Russia floundered, he says, but not because of anything inherent in Communism. Russia needs ideology and dogma to succeed, according to Dugin, and it had none. Dugin doesn't have the fourth political theory. It hasn't been discovered yet. Meanwhile, as the world waits for its introduction, he advocates an aggressive form of nationalism that sounds very much like fascism, though Dugin rejects that label. Fascism was one of the first three political theories that dominated the 20th century: Liberalism - concerned with the individual, represented by the West Communism – concerned with social class, represented by the Soviet Union Fascism – concerned with the nation state and race, represented by Germany, Italy, and Spain. Liberalism and Communism defeated Fascism and after that Liberalism defeated Communism. By the end of the 20th Century, Liberalism was the only one remaining. But without any foes or viable alternatives it quickly turned into post-liberalism, a universal non-ideology devoid of content and theoretical substance.  According to Dugin, post-liberalism is a world-wide daily practice and an existential fact. It imposes itself everywhere, “so that we recognize we are forced to accept human rights and other liberal ideological positions." It quickly become obvious that Dugin's writing is full of contradictions. How can a non-ideology have ideological positions? How can human rights be seen as oppressive? Dugin is pretty good at resolving these ambiguities. Whether he crosses the line from 'one paradox too many' to 'common grifter' is for readers to decide. Dugin's real achievement is keeping two parallel messages going at the same time, so that he has fans on the far Left as well as on the far Right. In the US, it's not hard to find self-identified leftists and progressives preaching Dugin's gospel without even knowing who he is. His message has appeal when the fascist elements in it are excised out. But taken as a whole, it sounds somewhat similar to the religion of the far-right in America. The recipe includes authoritarian conservative ideals like tradition, militarism, racism, and religion.
It's interesting to note how the reasoning  used lately by far right Christian extremists in the US overlaps perfectly with Dugin's dogma. It's not going too far out on a limb to ask about activists like Scott Lively and groups like the World Congress of Families who love Russia and hate gays. In the logic that fuels their latest efforts is a claim that marriage equality for same sex couples violates their religious freedom. This is identical to Dugan's ideology and it's state policy in Russia, too. In fact, this is Dugin's objection to human rights ideology, in general. He says that human rights for individuals and minorities, end up infringing on the rights of the majority.	At a press conference given by Vladimir Putin on December 19, 2013, he was asked about the amount of attention currently given to religion and moral values in Russia. Vladimir Putin: What’s important for me is to protect Russians from certain quasi-values that are very hard for our people to accept. The issue is to shield us from the rather aggressive behaviour of certain social groups, which, in my opinion, not just live the way they like, but also aggressively impose their views on other people and other countries. That is the only thing behind my position on certain issues that you alluded to.

With the first three political theories out of the way, Dugin moves on to plan the future. For Russia, liberalism, or post-liberalism, does not fit. Communism and Fascism are archaic. For now, he promotes an aggressive nationalism with the goal of destroying the West and its ideology. At the same time, he promotes a mystical belief in the superiority of Russia and Russians that goes beyond exceptionalism.

"Liberalism developed flawless weapons aimed at achieving its straight-forward alternatives, which was the basis for its victory. But it is this very victory that holds the greatest risk to liberalism. We need only to ascertain the location of these new, vulnerable spots in the global system and decipher its login passwords in order to hack into its system. At the very least, we must try to do so." “Everything will fall into place if we recognize Russia as a civilization. not just a country. In other words, Russia cannot be compared with other countries, such as Switzerland, France,  Germany, Belgium, England, Italy and Spain. Russia should be compared with Europe as a whole or with the Islamic world, or with the Chinese civilization.”

To bring Russia from the status of a regional power (he and Obama agree on that!) to a global power, Dugin has a to-do list of urgent tasks: Proceed to create a supranational - Eurasian Union integrating all the CIS countries to become a global power. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Fully develop the ideology of "Russian conservatism" upholding and defending the sovereign spiritual identity.  Develop a mechanism for interaction of the state with traditional religious faith. Strengthen Russian influence in the CIS countries. Establish pro-Russian political forces and movements in the CIS countries. Use all available means to present an attractive image in the public consciousness. Under no circumstances, allow Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Armenia to join NATO. If the political leadership of any CIS countries proceed toward joining NATO, refuse to act as guarantor for their territorial integrity. The influence that Russia has on a significant part of the population of these countries will inevitably lead to their disintegration and dismemberment. Enter into a strategic partnership with Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Libya, North Korea, Syria. For long-term objectives, Dugin suggests: Become an independent political player within the entire planet, providing national security on a global scale, with capability to deploy armed forces around the globe. Extend the zone of direct influence to Eastern Europe, and especially the Orthodox countries of Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Greece. Establish bilateral military-political alliances with China, India, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Brazil.

Dugin's vision of Russia as a future global power can sound like nothing more than an ambitious plan to promote its own interests. It's the far right, quasi-fascist elements, like the rejection of democracy and individual rights and freedoms, that are disturbing. The bigotry and racism in Dugin's writing can't be ignored. Code words like "cosmopolite" are used and may not be recognized in the US. It's a pejorative term for Jewish people that was used in the Stalin era. It carries the disdain for anything foreign and the idea that some people aren't "one of us." One of Dugin's grievances is that no one today can publicly avow fascism because it has been criminalized and demonized by the West. Fascists have been turned into bogeymen, meant to scare people, he says. That's revealing. It's impossible to say how or if any of Dugin's ideology is baked into Russia's domestic and foreign policy today. On the surface, it seems to be quite influential.  There are echoes of it in the current dispute between Russia and Ukraine. It shows up in Putin's words.

"I once said, as you may know, that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy of the 20th century. Some of my colleagues raised an uproar, accusing me of some sort of hegemonism, of a desire to restore the empire. This is all rubbish! I was referring to the humanitarian side of the issue first and foremost. You are right: people used to live in a single united country, there was no difference between Ukraine, Russia, Belarus or Kazakhstan – all were equal. There was no difference between them. This, in fact, was the huge advantage of living together in such a big single state. It had its benefits; it gave us an edge in competition. However, it so happened that people woke up one day, and the country was gone – and nobody asked them. They suddenly realised they were living abroad."

Resources:
Aleksandr Dugin lecture delivered in English (2012). This is for the curious. Dugin's not a great public speaker in English.	http://www.youtube.com/...
Aleksandr Dugin's main website	http://www.dugin.ru
Fascism – Borderless and Red is still posted on one of Dugin's websites. Unfortunatly, it's only available in Russian. Your browser's translation may be approximate.	http://my.arcto.ru/...
Alexander Dugin: The Crazy Ideologue of the New Russian Empire	http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Russia's Creeping Fascism	http://www.opendemocracy.net/...
Putin's Brain	http://www.foreignaffairs.com/...
Press conference with Vladimir Putin on December 19, 2013	http://eng.kremlin.ru/...