The Russian president's landmark speeches, interviews and policies borrow heavily from great Russian thinkers past and present, from Peter the Great to Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. They offer powerful visions of strong leaders and the Russian nation: they value conservatism and the Slavic spirit. They root morality in Orthodoxy, and Russian identity in the historic struggle with the West. Today, Putin manages and manipulates those same ideas in his 'defense' of 130 million ethnic Russians against the world. With the annexation of Crimea, the war in Syria and shock election results across the West, the challenge of decrypting his worldview has become more pressing than ever. From a Eurasian Union to a new Russian Empire, this is a revealing tour of Kremlin doctrine and strategy, viewed through its philosophical roots.
What drives Marine Le Pen and France's Front National? Has her party really changed its ways, or is she merely rebranding its old ideas and policies for a new era? In the age of Brexit and Trump, France too has seen a growing audience for identity-based politics. Under 'Marine', the FN is enjoying unprecedented success. But what's her secret? This is a probing investigation into the philosophy of Marine Le Pen's FN. It seeks answers in her speeches, in the history of French nationalism and in revealing interviews with those on the far right-including Jean-Marie Le Pen himself. Michel Eltchaninoff exposes a vision of France tyrannized by liberalism and seduced by the offer of an uncompromising alternative: a Republic 'beyond Left and Right', defined by its enemies and aligned with Putin's Russia. Whatever Marine Le Pen is thinking, she has not forgotten the FN's roots. The French far right is now stronger than ever.
How a Soviet cosmic dream is becoming a modern reality Cheating death and raising the dead. Creating life. Freeing the spirit. Colonising space. These projects, of which some have been achieved and some will soon, have a shared Russian history, belonging to a movement known as cosmism – a mixture of scientific research, metaphysics and mysticism. More than 100 years ago, key Russian thinkers and anarchists alike wanted to resurrect the dead and send them into space. Since then, cosmists have prepared to colonise the planets, to save a world that would become overpopulated after death had been vanquished. Cosmism was the model behind the Soviet Union. Yet, it is still ever-present, and cosmism is responsible for a number of Russian policies. Decades ago, it also found itself a second home: Silicon Valley. A principal source of inspiration for Californian transhumanists, Soviet cosmism founded the core dreams of contemporary society – immortality and colonisation of space. The cosmists have written our future, and we're now living it.
¿Qué tienen en común el papel mesiánico que Vladímir Putin confiere a Rusia y el proyecto SpaceX de Elon Musk? ¿Qué relación hay entre el interés de Google por revertir el envejecimiento y la momia de Lenin celosamente custodiada en la plaza Roja de Moscú? La respuesta la hallamos en el cosmismo, una corriente nacida en las últimas y convulsas décadas de la Rusia imperial, cuya influencia ha atravesado la historia entera de la Unión Soviética y que aún hoy se hace sentir en los proyectos más audaces emprendidos en Silicon Valley. El filósofo Michel Eltchaninoff realiza un apasionante recorrido por la historia y las ideas de los cosmistas, un puñado de eruditos que con sus visionarias propuestas moldearon el siglo soviético: desde el leninismo, el estalinismo o la carrera espacial hasta las corrientes ultraconservadoras surgidas tras el hundimiento de la URSS y que sirven de guía a los dirigentes rusos actuales. Una historia tan desconocida como sorprendente, que halla su epígono en movimientos como el transhumanismo o en los más recientes avances por colonizar el espacio o hacer realidad el sueño –para algunos, pesadilla– de la inmortalidad. «Un libro que toda persona interesada en la historia de las ideas y el imaginario del futuro debería leer.» Blaise Mao, Usbek&Rica
La folle storia dei cosmisti e dei transumanisti russi Un nuovo saggio-inchiesta appassionante e originale dell’autore di Nella testa di Vladimir Putin, caporedattore della rivista francese Philosophie Magazine e specialista di filosofia russa. «Difficile credere che Nella testa di Vladimir Putin sia stato scritto nel 2015 (poi pubblicato in italiano in un’edizione accresciuta nel 2022), tanto è sconcertante la sua lucidità. Forse Michel Eltchaninoff è un profeta. Comunque aveva detto e capito tutto del percorso filosofico, dell’irrigidimento ideologico, del confinamento dentro una “logica fittizia” dello Zar. Davvero peccato non averlo letto prima». Marine de Tilly, Le Point Sconfiggere la morte e resuscitare i defunti, creare organismi viventi, istituire una rete mondiale di comunicazioni, scatenare la potenza della mente, manipolare sia i fenomeni cosmici sia quelli atmosferici, colonizzare lo spazio... Alcuni di questi progetti sono già realizzati, altri forse lo saranno presto, ma tutti hanno radici in Russia, nel movimento detto cosmismo, miscuglio di ricerca scientifica, metafisica e misticismo. Il primo cosmista fu Nikolaj Fëdorovič Fëdorov, filosofo eccentrico che intrattenne scambi epistolari con Dostoevskij e che si prefiggeva di far rinascere i morti. Tempo dopo i leader bolscevichi, «costruttori di Dio», sognarono di creare una nuova religione e di rendere gli esseri umani immortali. Era proprio questo lo scopo, in fondo, quando fu mummificato il corpo di Lenin. Altri personaggi hanno spianato la strada alla conquista dello spazio già negli anni Venti del Novecento; una volta eliminata la morte, infatti, la Terra sarebbe diventata troppo ristretta per l’umanità. Questo lato della cultura russa e sovietica, quasi sconosciuto fuori dalla sua terra d’origine, sembrerà abbastanza assurdo a una mentalità cartesiana. Ma il cosmismo sopravvive ancora oggi e spiega vari aspetti della Russia attuale, incluse le sue scelte politiche. Da qualche decennio, inoltre, il cosmismo ha trovato una seconda patria nella Silicon Valley, dove abbondano scienziati e informatici di origine russa; il più famoso è Sergej Brin, cofondatore di Google. Brin sogna il transumanesimo, mentre Elon Musk, nel rilanciare un progetto di vita interplanetaria, prende ispirazione dai cosmisti russi.
What drives Marine Le Pen and France's Front National? Has her party really changed its ways, or is she merely rebranding its old ideas and policies for a new era? In the age of Brexit and Trump, France too has seen a growing audience for identity-based politics. Under 'Marine', the FN is enjoying unprecedented success. But what's her secret? This is a probing investigation into the philosophy of Marine Le Pen's FN. It seeks answers in her speeches, in the history of French nationalism and in revealing interviews with those on the far right-including Jean-Marie Le Pen himself. Michel Eltchaninoff exposes a vision of France tyrannized by liberalism and seduced by the offer of an uncompromising alternative: a Republic 'beyond Left and Right', defined by its enemies and aligned with Putin's Russia. Whatever Marine Le Pen is thinking, she has not forgotten the FN's roots. The French far right is now stronger than ever.
The Russian president's landmark speeches, interviews and policies borrow heavily from great Russian thinkers past and present, from Peter the Great to Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. They offer powerful visions of strong leaders and the Russian nation: they value conservatism and the Slavic spirit. They root morality in Orthodoxy, and Russian identity in the historic struggle with the West. Today, Putin manages and manipulates those same ideas in his 'defense' of 130 million ethnic Russians against the world. With the annexation of Crimea, the war in Syria and shock election results across the West, the challenge of decrypting his worldview has become more pressing than ever. From a Eurasian Union to a new Russian Empire, this is a revealing tour of Kremlin doctrine and strategy, viewed through its philosophical roots.
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