The identity profile of the “Dugin constellation”
The ideology synthesized in Dugin's work is one that absorbs, on the one hand, European conservative thinking, and on the other hand is inspired by the work of the first wave of Eurasianists such as Nikolay Trobetskoy, Piotr Savitsky, Gerogy Frolovsky, Georgy Vernadsky. This constellation of intellectuals from the Russian emigration did a huge job, on the one hand challenging the Eurocentric vision, and on the other hand showing that the collective identity of the Russian people is closely linked to the osmosis that occurred throughout the period of Tatar-Mongol domination. Continentalism folded into the vision of Carl Schmitt and other authors from Europe completes this vision that rejects Modernity as the expression of a major historical deviation, of a huge civilizational fracture.
Of course, the conception of the eternal struggle between tellurocracy as an expression of the Civilization of the Land and thalassocracy as an expression of the Civilization of the Sea is a solid one and worthy of all appreciation. Here we should also mention Werner Sombart who described in a superb manner the major conflict between the civilization of money, versatile and mercantile, represented by Great Britain and the USA, on the one hand, and the continental civilization focused on vertical, perennial values, deeply anchored in the millennial tradition of the peoples. In the confrontation between “merchants” and “heroes” as types of collective identity, the one that deserves to be admired is the latter.
And in general, this series of articles is not intended to analyze in detail the philosophical and socio-political vision of Professor Dugin. It can be applauded or criticized, depending on each person's vision. And this would have been perfectly normal if Dugin had remained within a strictly academic framework and had not entered the slippery terrain of politics. But since he has opted to embrace the position of total, unconditional support, despite any evidence and patriotic reason, of the Putin regime, he assumes the thankless position of a promoter of occult interests, diametrically opposed to the national interests of Russia, not to mention the peace and stability of the entire continent.
Personally, I know very well what Dugin thinks about Putin and the essence of this political regime. He has confessed it to me more than once, but I will not quote him here, since these are private discussions.
The harsh and perfectly justified criticism that Dugin directs towards the West as a nefarious civilizational phenomenon and a demonic political project is perfectly valid. I fully agree with it. As do those who followed his “teachings”. But presenting Putin as a champion of the fight against the liberal monster and the dragon of globalist mammonocracy is proof either of the lack of an overall vision of the great processes currently taking place in the world (an unlikely version given the intellectual scope of the character), or of completely reprehensible hypocrisy. Whatever one may say, the collapse from the upper level of the highest academic peaks to the shameful role of a venal propagandist of the Kremlin xenocracy is proof of a nature that is difficult to define in honorable terms.
What could be at stake? A banal fear of death? We cannot rule it out, as long as we know the criminal nature of the political system in Russia. Especially after so many political opponents, commanders of the “Russian Spring” in Donbass, and his own daughter, were killed in more than strange circumstances.
But it could just as well be the immeasurable pride of knowing oneself as part of political power, a public actor who exercises a major influence on events. Illusions, of course. But how hard it is to give up on them.
The fact that Dugin excommunicated me from his sect does not surprise me at all. The logic is simple: Either you follow the line drawn from above, or you are his mortal enemy. But I have understood this only in recent years. I leave aside his ingratitude for the work I have done for years, translating and editing his books through my own labor and with my own money. Although I admit that it's not a lack of gratitude. It could simply be that his superiors in the Kremlin ordered him to cut off all contact with me.
I return to Dugin's worldview. So, if his criticism of the West is worthy of all praise, the solution he proposes is false and dangerous. To pedal endlessly and to the point of absurdity that “the Tsar is good, the boyars are bad” is proof of downright shameful cowardice. To claim that Putin is prevented from doing anything good for the country by the “fifth/sixth column”, represented by the liberals that Putin has kept in office for 25 years is ridiculous. To continue to promote the great deception about MULTIPOLARITY/BRICS especially after everything that has happened under the false Covid-19 pandemic, and after all the measures to impose the digital GULAG everywhere in the world (including in Russia!), is again a manifestation of embarrassing duplicity.
To merge entirely with the dominant discourse of the cabalistic mafia that controls all the power in Russia is degrading. And this is especially true while thousands and thousands of Russian patriots are currently speaking out loud, a fact for which they often pay with their lives or freedom.
Not to admit that Russia was lured into a geopolitical trap by its military intervention in Ukraine is disqualifying. Everyone has been openly saying for years that Russia's enemies have conceived this war in Ukraine as a second Afghanistan, with the goal of destroying the country's economy, causing social chaos and territorial disintegration. And only Dugin and the soldiers of his internationalist army continue to imitate a triumphal march of the Russian army and publish photos posing with the flag of the Donetsk Republic.
Over the course of several decades, Dugin has managed to create a real religious sect around himself. This fundamentalist cult has Putin as its supreme deity, and the Moscow magician Dugin himself appears as its high priest. He is the one who established the canons of this neo-pagan religion. His numerous ideological clientele, such as the idolatrous Frenchmen we have already mentioned, form the clergy of this sect. Anyone who deviates from the dogmas of this ideological tribe is declared a heretic worthy of being burned at the stake. And the Inquisition of this order has as its judges comical characters like Lucien Cerise, completely devoid of both a sense of humor and reality.
The state of cognitive paralysis induced by the new religion of multipolarism is yet more proof of the fact that the gregarious syndrome can be induced even in the most cultivated people, if they lack a true critical sense and an elementary state of humility. The pride of being associated with the “powerful of the day” has defeated the need to preserve their intellectual independence and capacity for analysis.
We could define the psychological state of the members of this cult as follows. A state of trance, of fascination, of mental blindness, of hypnosis. Such phenomena would be worthy of the analysis of a historian of religions like Mircea Eliade. And yet we hope that some of the followers of this opaque and self-sufficient social group could at some point wake up from their state of lethargy, and begin the process of disenchantment. I hope for their good and that of others it will happen. After a long cognitive drunkenness, a process of awakening should also follow. But this is only the case of honest and upright people who were simply deceived by high-class manipulators. This process isn't possible for perverted, greedy, and profiteering individuals.
Reflecting on the intellectual condition of this cohort of militants for a false cause, gripped by a major ideological blockage, I remembered the title of the famous book Captive Thought by Czesław Miłosz, published in 1953. The Polish author was referring to communist ideology. But is the multipolar ideology less dogmatic, less utopian, less harmful?
I have read several books by Professor Dugin. I have every respect for his vast and valuable academic work. But as I mentioned before, in my opinion his tragedy is that he allowed himself to be drawn into power games that seriously compromised him both in the eyes of the Russian people, who perceive him as a propagandist of power, and in the eyes of a growing number of intellectuals from various countries, who understand that Dugin has completely merged with the Putin regime, glorifying it to the point of absurdity.
And his timid criticism of nameless bureaucrats, and the allegorical language he uses to express dissatisfaction with the real problems of his country, reminds me of the style of the communist press. And during the USSR, moderate and truncated criticism of bureaucrats who deviate from the party line was allowed. But you could never DIRECTLY criticize the number one person in the state, whether it was the time of Stalin or the Brezhnev period. This is exactly how Dugin acts.
Anyone can make mistakes, but Putin is always the symbol of wisdom and foresight, of patriotism and traditional values. For a while, such a narrative becomes downright disgusting, regardless of whether this is the fruit of paralyzing fear or dishonorable complicity.
