Methodological specificity of Russian geopolitics

Abstract

The decline of the communist ideology and the collapse of the Soviet
Union resulted in a rapid revival of geopolitics in the post-Soviet Russia.
Geopolitical thought developed in Russia in two ways: as a science and a special
method of interpreting international relations as well as an ideology. In
case of the former, the purpose was determining and defining the place and
role of Russia in the new post-Cold War international system, and in case
of the latter, making geopolitics a lever of new Russian Messianism or even
New Imperialism. Geopolitics in Russia was becoming a common ideology
that was to fill in an ideological gap created by the decline of communism,
compensate the discomfort of Russian identity caused by the disintegration
of the Soviet Empire, establish new challenges and objectives. Thus, on the
one hand, geopolitical thought aspired to the rank of a scientific discipline
and, on the other hand, to the status of a dominating worldview. The article
describes methodological rationalizations within Russian geopolitics and
sources, directions and concepts of geopolitical reflection in Russia.