Geo-Strategy #9: Putin's War for the Soul of Russia

In his May 31, 2024 class, Jiang Xueqin explains why Putin is preparing to mobilize Russian society for total war:Putin's favorite philosopher Aleksandr Dugin believes that Russia and the West are fighting Samuel Huntington's War of Civilizations in Ukraine. What does he mean by this? In the late eighties, Francis Fukuyama published his "End of History?" essay, which argued that liberal democracy and consumerism are humanity's best conception of itself, and therefore history has ceased to be a dialectical argument. Both Dugin and Putin believe that Western consumerism is a poison pill that has corrupted Russian society. It has manipulated Russians into betraying their own civilization, and this betrayal has led to political corruption, rampant alcoholism, and a declining population. In the war against Ukraine, Putin has discovered that continuous war can rejuvenate the Russian soul. He is intent on channeling Russia's "warrior" culture to fight against consumerism.