The Russian Drive to the East and the Islamic Eurasia

Abstract

Although the contemporary post-Soviet Russian policy towards the Pacific has changed significantly in the last decade of the 20^th century, the Old Orthodox Slavocentric tradition of “mission in the East” remains unchanged. Russia still did not discover that military might gives only an illusion of influence. And the Russian Peril is still real despite the political, economic and cultural decline of the “evil empire.” This historical survey of Russia’s expansionism in the Northeastern Asia Pacific Rim attempts to look at the realm of colliding cultures, ideologies and religions in a larger context of the hegemonic policy of the Tzarist/Soviet/Neo-Russian empire, from an Islamic civilizational perspective.