‘Russkiy mir’: Russian Identity as a Soft Power in the Balkans

Abstract

The research is focused on different civilizational vectors of the Russian popular doctrine ‘Russkiy mir’(i.e. ‘Russian world’) and its impact on the Balkans. The author also pays attention to the Slavic ideological vector of Russia in the Balkans – Panslavism, the historiosophic vector of Russian Idea as European and Messianic at the same time, the spiritual identity of Russkiy Mir – the ‘Holy Russia’ and the religious identity of Russian Orthodox civilization. The Great Return of Russia to the Black Sea region after the reunification with the Crimea (2014) and the transformation of the doctrine ‘Russkiy Mir’ from an "reintegration strategy" into a geopolitical reality. The Crimea is also the terminus-ante-quem of the chronological period of ‘post-Soviet Russia’ (1991–2014). The reunification with the Crimean marks the end of the post-Soviet period for Russia as well as rehabilitation of its great power status, lost after the collapse of the USSR. The Belarusian and the Ukrainian points of view about the Russkiy mir concept are also identified by the term ‘East Slavic Mir’. The Bulgarian Orthodox identity, based on the Church Slavonic or Bulgarian medieval languages – from the other side, is the spiritual historical link to Russkiy Mir. It is almost impossible to render in English the difference in the spelling between the political idea of ‘Russkiy Mir’, which is spelled “Русский мир”, and the church doctrine of ‘Russkiy Mir’, spelled “Русский мiр”. So, the ‘i’the church doctrine will be highlighted and italicized ‘i’. Conceiving of ‘Russkiy Mir’ only as an ideology or as a geopolitical doctrine underestimates the spiritual vector of ‘Russkiy Mir’. The spiritual reality is not abstract, but is a field of serious historical, cultural and geopolitical clashes. The annexation of a spiritual territory is more painful than any other territorial or material loss. The attempt on the part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to violate canon law by assisting the Kiev authorities in favour of the schismatics (the Kiev Patriarchate) and against the Orthodox (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) could lead to a split in Orthodoxy into the Slavic and the Greek ones.