The Fourth Political Theory

beyond left and right but against the center

Russian culture embarked on the path of the archeomodern from the end of the 17th century, but its first signs appeared even earlier - from the first half of this century. 

The adoption of Orthodoxy by the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir was the starting point of Christian historicity, which covers almost the entire history of Russia - with the exception of the Soviet period and the era of liberal reforms. This historicity itself was a complex and multidimensional process, which it would be wrong to describe as a gradual and unidirectional penetration of Byzantine Orthodox culture into the popular environment, in parallel with the displacement of pre-Christian ('pagan') ideas. Rather, we are talking about different phases of the temporal synthesis between Byzantinism and East Slavic demetriac civilisation, phases determined by the different correlation of the main structures - Byzantine ideology at the elite level and the reception of Christianity by the people as such.

It is not up to us to choose the actual time and manner in which a Radical Subject, from a human aspiration of an existential order and consequent intellectual adherence to the values and truths preached by the Fourth Political Theory, can transform and transfigure itself into a concrete metaphysical and spiritual human reality that in its essence is res of a mystical-eschatological order.

On the threshold of the jubilee congress of the World Russian People’s Council in the Kremlin, which is dedicated to the Russian World, it is necessary to address the very concept of “Russian World” in a little more detail.

Alexander Dugin discusses the emerging multipolar world, highlighting the distinctive ideological and civilisational paths of various global regions in opposition to the Western liberal paradigm.

Nevertheless, from time to time we use the combination of words, “Russian philosophy,” and we list the names of “Russian philosophers”: Skovoroda, Solovyov, Fedorov, Leontiev, Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Trubetskoy, Frank, Florensky, Shestov, Kojève, Losev. Who are they, then, and what were they up to?

In the context of global challenges, Russia is finding its unique path and national idea. One of those who is indispensable in understanding Russia’s role and place in the modern world is Alexander Dugin — a political scientist, philosopher, and ideologist of Eurasianism. 

'Magical Reflections on Russia's Defeat', which the West has begun to talk about explicitly, advising them to stop, is another name for military-political propaganda with a neat and quite appropriate appeal to anthropology. Propaganda is the magic of war. 

Heidegger himself has repeatedly asked himself the question: who is Hölderlin in the context of modern philosophy? Who is Rilke’s Angel?20 Who Nietzsche’s Zarathustra? In the same vein, we can ask ourselves: who is Martin Heidegger in his own historico-philosophical picture? 

Russia, as a pole of a multipolar world, is fighting the West in Ukraine. Many Islamic countries, influenced by Western propaganda, did not clearly understand the reasons, goals, and the very nature of this war, assuming it was a regional conflict (and there are many such in the Islamic world itself). 

In Israel and the Gaza Strip, two disasters occurred one after the other: a Hamas attack on the Jewish state — with numerous civilian casualties, including hostage-taking — and Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip, far exceeding in cruelty and the number of civilian casualties, primarily women and children.

If the main tendency of Western European philosophy was only outlined in Heraclitus and Parmenides, in Plato and Aristotle its path was clearly fixed. Heidegger calls Platonism and Aristotelianism the “End of the first Beginning.”

New civilisations are on the rise, including Chinese, Islamic, Indian, African, and Latin American. Russia sees them as potential allies and partners in a genuine and equitable multipolar order, says Alexander Dugin.

For Heidegger, the history of the West is the history of Western philosophy. That is, philosophy expresses in itself the deep content of the whole historical process. At the same time, Heidegger, as well as Husserl and all Western European thinkers, identifies the fate of the West [Zapad] with the universal fate of humanity, which in its life cycle is fated to move towards the sunset [Zakat], to the “behindfalling” [za-pad] of its spiritual sun. The West is a place of sunset, where the sun “falls,” goes to sleep

Zionism is the state ideology of Israel. Why do Jews believe they are the chosen people? What is the significance of the Jewish diaspora as a Jewish tradition? Why is Zionism, on one hand, a continuation of Judaism and, on the other, its refutation?

Certainly most thinking individuals would agree that in the 1990s, the Russian state was taken over by adversaries who imposed external control over it – over our entire society. Its overarching name is liberalism. Not some ‘bad liberalism’, ‘distorted liberalism’, or ‘pseudo-liberalism’, but simply liberalism. No other kind of liberalism exists. Russian liberals became nodes in this occupation network.

Today the questions, what is Russian philosophy, has it existed, does it exist now, and will it exist in the future, are pressing. But there is an even deeper question, is Russian philosophy possible at all?

The global information war is now in full swing. Several versions of reality are clashing with each other more and more openly. Societies and individuals choose for themselves which reality to believe in. And then they live in it. 

Let us try to describe one of the possible scenarios of further escalation in the Middle East.

The South Caucasus poses a serious problem for Russia. The same goes for the entire near regions, with the exception of Belarus. Only with Minsk are relations fundamentally sound and trustworthy. Everything else is highly problematic.

The topic of the empire will inevitably come to the forefront. The term ‘state-civilisation’, introduced into scholarly discourse by our friend, the Chinese thinker Zhang Weiwei, essentially means ‘empire’.

In January 2013, Open Revolt was very happy to publish the following conversation between the Eurasian Youth Union’s Daria Dugina and our very own James Porrazzo, founder of New Resistance.

The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine undoubtedly unifies the Islamic world. Western conservatives once again invoke the defence of a ‘Judeo-Christian civilisation’ in the face of Muslims – the radical ideology of Hamas gives them a convenient pretext. Yet, a society deeply rooted in atheism, materialism, and the legalisation of various perversions, having long abandoned theology and traditional values, can neither be considered Christian nor Jewish.

On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Hamas movement commenced military actions against Israel. Israeli towns and settlements bordering the Gaza Strip were attacked. Hamas’ military wing declared that, during the operation, it had struck over fifty Israeli military positions and captured thirty-five Israeli soldiers and settlers. Israel’s defence minister stated that the Hamas movement had declared war on his nation.