The Death of the Byzantine Empire and Construction of Historical/Political Identities in Late Putin Russia

Dmitry Shlapentokh

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 2013, vol. 15, issue 1, 69-96

Abstract: Post-Soviet Russians' identity continues to evolve. While ‘Eurasianism’, with its idea of ‘symbiosis’ between Russians and Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds, has started to decline and has been replaced in the minds of the elite and some of the general public with ‘Byzantism’, a peculiar Russocentric ideology sans traditional Slavophilism and rising racism. ‘Byzantism’ emphasizes the importance of transethnic Orthodoxy and Russian language/culture as key elements of Russian civilization. It also implies adherence to a strong corporate state and the assumption that Russia is surrounded by a hostile East and West, the last more dangerous for it undermines the spiritual core of Russian/Byzantism civilization. These views, however, are challenged by those who believe that Russia is a part of the West or, to be precise, of Central/Western Europe. One sees the clash of these views in response to a movie on the death of the Byzantine Empire, which was produced in 2008 on the eve of Putin's transfer of power to Dmitry Medvedev.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2013.766088

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