Lev Gumilev and the European New Right

Abstract

The striking affinities that have developed between radical-conservative movements in Western Europe and Russia since the end of the Cold War have been widely noted. This essay considers these affinities through the example of the Soviet historian and geographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912–1992). It argues that Gumilev and the European New Right developed perspectives that were highly comparable, founded on similar principles, and articulated through similar images and allusions. Yet despite the powerful resonances in terms of basic concepts and theoretical orientation, there were nonetheless deep differences in terms of the conclusions regarding the practical implications for their respective societies that Gumilev and the Europeans deduced from these principles.

The Etnos Archipelago

“…For a concept that has not gained much traction among Anglo-American scholars and that has been firmly rejected by leading figures in Russian anthropology (Tishkov 2003), etnos has shown remarkable resilience. The term's contemporary currency throughout Eurasia rests to some extent on the posthumous popularity of Lev Gumilёv (Bassin 2016). It is hardly possible, though, that etnos could have sunk such deep roots if it did not resonate with large numbers of people in the post-Soviet space.…”

“…This is all the more surprising given the lasting, albeit dubious, legacy of Gumilёv's writings and the fact that Anderson and Arzyutov bring their story right up to Vladimir Putin and other admirers of Gumilёv, such as the extreme-right-wing intellectual Aleksandr Dugin. While the contents of Gumilёv's writings tend to be extremely speculative and esoteric (see Gumilёv 1990 for an English translation of one of his many works), and have been used by Eurasianists and other right-wing intellectuals inside and outside of Russia (Bassin 2015(Bassin , 2016), Gumilёv's many books have been consistently bestsellers in the history and humanities sections of Russian bookstores since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (most of his writings were not published during the Soviet period). Gumilёv would be all the more relevant in the context of the authors' brief discussion of "Eurasianism" and related concepts.…”

Radical conservatism and global order: international theory and the new right

“…The NR alternative to conservative nostalgia or liberal domination is a domestic and international order centred around a return to the ‘ethnos’, to what Roger Griffin (2000, 48, quoted in Bassin 2015, 842) has evocatively captured as a ‘basic unit of homogenous cultural energy’ distinct from the modern nation (and state). As the previous section has shown, for at least parts of the NR opposition to the liberal universalizing/national/managerial state and efforts toward its ‘deconstruction’ are certainly difficult, but they are by no means impossible.…”

The imaginaries of the Eurasian Union: discursive construction of post-Soviet transnationality in Russia and Kazakhstan

“…(Putin 2014) departure from the European model of development and to its doctrine of territorial expansionism. For more details, see Laruelle (2004); Shekhovtsov (2009); Bassin (2015).…”