Alexander Dugin’s ‘times of troubles’ as paradigms of Russian history

Abstract

Alexander Dugin, the seminal philosopher and journalist in post-Soviet Russia, was especially influential in the late Yeltsin/early Putin era. His visions of Russian history and the relationship between past and present reflect the views of many ethnic Russians who became quite disappointed with the results of the post-Soviet transformation. Dugin believed the collapse of the state was a temporary setback, one of many in Russia’s long history, when a collapse usually led to a new glorious rise. The current ‘Time of Trouble’ is a good example; as a matter of fact, Russia has had not one but many ‘Times of Troubles’. (‘Time of Trouble’ is the term that had been used by both pre-Revolutionary and Soviet historians. In its strict historical meaning, the event covered the period from the end of the sixteenth century to 1613.)