Russia's new imperialists, Gumilev

Gumilev believed that the formation or "ethnogenesis" of "ethnoi" or what we would call ethnic groups (and later nations and empires) is the result of a burst of chemical energy (probably from outer space). This energy gives a group of men a mysterious force that explains their collective rise and fall. He calls this principle "passionarity."

Each ethnos has a life cycle of 1,200 to 1,500 years. The whole pro-cess takes 60 generations to complete. The first stage of the "ascent" takes 300 years. The next stage, the fluorescence or "acme," as he puts, takes another 300 years. Then comes the "pivotal" or destructive stage of 150 years, then a 600 year stage of inertia, followed by a stage of eclipse and then a stage of homeostasis which implies a return to primitive savagery, which he compares to African Bushmen or Australian Aboriginals. ....

He believes that members of "ethnoi" should not mix -- they should marry among themselves. For the ethnoi to survive, elders must be respected, as should religious institutions and the state. Of course, the key elements here are that history is determined, the individual is second to the group, Eurasia is rising and the West is in decline. ....

Since Gumilev's death in 1992 his books have become best sellers in Russia. Hundreds of thousands of copies have been printed and sold. His books are found on almost all university reading lists dealing with history and the social sciences. The new Kazakh State University was named after him. When Vladimir Putin visited Gumilev University he said that Lev Gumilev was 'the greatest Eurasianist of our times' and that 'his scholarly works are a brilliant contribution ... to thinking about history.'

When Canadians read about the recent violation of Arctic airspace by a Russian jet fighter, when we hear about a claim by Russia to oil wealth that we believe to be in Canadian waters, when we hear that it has planted a Russian flag under the ice of the North Pole, when we contemplate the Russian invasion of Georgia and its support for Iran's nuclear ambitions, we need to understand that these are not random events.

They are an expression of Eurasianism, the new ideology of 21st-century Russia. It is the latest version of Russian nationalism. It is hierarchical, imperial, expansive, militaristic and nondemocratic. It celebrates and endorses the authoritarian continuity between Soviet Russia and the present regime. We ignore it at our peril.

Russia's new imperialists

A new breed of Russian nationalist is warping history in disturbing ways