Idea and Institution
Cultural Mission and Geopolitics
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Founded in 2007, the foundation Russkii mir is officially in charge of promoting Russian culture abroad. As the name “Russian world” suggests, it is only partly comparable with the cultural institutes of other countries: the concept russkii mir goes back to the Slavophiles of the 19th century and the Eurasians. After the demise of the Soviet Union, their ideas combined with other anti-Western currents to form an ideological conglomerate that now apparently represents the basis of Russia’s international cultural policy. It is basically conservative and neo-imperial. In the post-Soviet space, the foundation openly pursues political aims.
(Osteuropa 5/2012, pp. 69–80)