Tatarstan: at the Crossroads of Islam and Orthodoxy

Abstract

"Arguments for Russia's special place in the world take a variety of lines. Of these, one of the most fundamental and widespread is that Russia is a specially 'Eurasian' civilisation, the result of a combination of sources: European Christian and Asian Muslim (sometimes people say 'Muslim' openly, sometimes it is understood implicitly, as historically Russia has had, to say the least, little interaction with Buddhism and Hinduism). Not only the ideologues of Russian nationalism but also western political scientists venture from time to time into the risky intellectual waters of Eurasianism. Notwithstanding the tenacity of Eurasian theories for about a century, all the argument has been constructed entirely on poetical images and foggy, albeit enticing, metaphysical speculations."