"The American Empire Should Be Destroyed": Aleksandr Dugin and the Perils of Immanentized Eschatology

by James Heiser

Over two decades have passed since the “Cold War” between the Soviet Union and the West ended. Many citizens of the former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact nations have embraced the opportunities which come with expanded civil liberties and economic growth, but extremists exploit nostalgia for the days of empire. In the words of Vladimir Putin, “the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.” A new ideology—Eurasianism—is being advanced by those who dream of a new empire and revenge on the Western powers which brought about the collapse of the Soviet empire. Aleksandr Dugin, the father of Eurasianism, was recently described by “Foreign Affairs” as “Putin’s Brain.” For Dugin, the battle between Russia and the West is an epic struggle to fulfill ancient a battle between the mystical forces of the mythical land of ‘Arctogaia’ and a decadent, materialistic America. “The American Empire should be destroyed,” Dugin declares, “And at one point, it will be.” America needs to understand the nature of the Eurasianist ideology, and the fanaticism which wages war against the people of Ukraine today, and against the West tomorrow.“All too often, history is driven by the mad passions and ambitions of tyrants—and by warped visions of “progress” crafted in the shadows behind their thrones. James Heiser’s brilliant new book drags one of today’s most dangerous “gray eminences” into the light. His careful, intricate analysis reveals Aleksandr Dugin, whose twisted ideology shapes Vladimir Putin’s brutal and aggressive effort to build a Eurasian empire centered on Russia. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the perilous and irrational motivations of those who now rule in Moscow.” —Patrick Larkin, co-author of “Red Phoenix,” “The Enemy Within,” and other best-selling thrillers, and author of “The Tribune”“James Heiser has written a profoundly fascinating book on an important and troubling man. Anyone concerned about the future of Russia—indeed international affairs in general—should read this book.”—Peter Schweizer, President, Government Accountability Institute, William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution, author, “Extortion,” “Victory,” and “Reagan’s War”“A penetrating analysis of the dangerous totalitarian dogma of the man who has become Putin’s Rasputin. If you want to understand the new threat to Western civilization, you need to read this book.”—Dr. Robert Zubrin, President, Mars Society,President, Pioneer Astronautics and Pioneer Energy, author, “Merchants of Despair—Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism”

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Russia, Conspiracy Theories

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 3 out of 5]

March 18, 2025 Update Hearing Aleksandr Dugin's thoughts about his new book "The Trump Revolution: A New Order of Great Powers" as expressed to CNN International correspondent Frederik Pleitgen will send a further chill down your body. Available on X/Twitter here

Far Down the Rabbit-Hole of Populist Idealogues
Review of the Repristination Press Kindle ebook (2014) of the paperback original "The American Empire Should Be Destroyed": Aleksandr Dugin and the Perils of Immanentized Eschatology (2014)

I read Aleksandr Dugin and the Perils of Immanentized Eschatology as part of my survey of various books in relation to the 2020 American Election. Dugin may seem very far afield from that beginning, but the pathway to that extreme was my understanding that many, if not all, of the current worldwide populist Traditionalist movements usually have an idealogue behind the scenes. This is certainly the case with Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and Olavo de Carvalho, and in the present case with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Dugin. It is likely the case for populist movements in France, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey and others as well, although I haven't researched all of those.

Heiser's study of Dugin has extensive quotes from the idealogue's own writings and from some of the translations and studies of him made to date. I've bookmarked some of those in my Kindle notes for those who are interested.

The main one to highlight is:

It is hard to know how to react to someone who claims to want to bring about the end of the world. When that desire is expressed with a thick Russian accent, the hearer is all the more likely to simply dismiss the speaker as some sort of ‘super villain’ from a bad ‘action/adventure’ movie. It is a claim which evokes a snicker—until one realizes that the man who thinks that the “meaning of Russia” is “the End of the World” is the man whose geopolitical doctrine is being implemented by the ruler of Russia.

Dugin's path from occultism, Pamyat, New Bolshevism to his current Eurasianism philosophy is a chilling journey about the creation of a very dangerous idealogue who is likely chuckling at the current chaos in the American political system.

Trivia and Definitions
Immanentized Eschatology is basically trying to create the afterlife on earth. In the thoughts of idealogues it is equivalent to trying to create their idealized world in the present day.

immanentize
Pronunciation /ˈɪmənəntʌɪz/
Verb / Philosophy: To make (something which is transcendent) immanent; to render (something abstract) real, actual, or capable of being experienced.

eschatology
Pronunciation /ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/
Noun: The part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

[Sherrie Gossett · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When there is only one power which decides who is right and who is wrong, and who should be punished and who not, we have a form of global dictatorship. This is not acceptable. Therefore, we should fight against it. If someone deprives us of our freedom, we have to react. And we will react. The American Empire should be destroyed. And at one point it will be . . .

Spiritually, globalisation is a creation of a grand parody, the kingdom of the Antichrist. And the United States is the centre of its expansion." - Alexander Dugin

James D. Heiser's book, written after the annexation of Crimea, opens with this quote from Alexander Dugin, dubbed by many in Western media, "Putin's brain."

This book offers the layman an introduction to some of the sources of Dugin's worldview. Heiser quotes from scholars familiar with Dugin's work (like Marlène Laruelle of George Washington University and Anastasia V. Mitrofanova of the University of Tartu) and quotes liberally from Dugin himself.

At 126 pages, you can easily read it in one sitting.

The author is a scholar of the Lutheran church. His views surface briefly toward the end of the book.

At first glance, Dugin comes off as both pragmatic and enigmatic. His deep roots in esoterica and Russian Orthodoxy seem to signal an 'other-worldly' metaphysics. He can appear both congenial (as in some interviews with Westerners) and obscure, as when he cites the "Last Revolution — the work of an acephalous, headless bearer of the cross, hammer, and sickle, crowned by the eternal fylfot of the sun." Not exactly an ice-breaker, that.

Dugin doesn't want for friends or followers though. In addition to a growing international influence, he's developed his own Eurasia Party (as we read in the book's first chapter). Heiser recounts how the Eurasian Youth Union (a wing of Dugin's party) was allegedly behind destabilization plots in March 2014 in Ukraine. These plans included acquisition of Molotov cocktails and equipment for "storming government buildings" so as to "disrupt the presidential election."

In a recent interview, Dugin noted: "The streets of Kharkiv in 2014 were covered with flyers containing my statements and quotes, my portraits were plastered on the premises of the city administration."

Clearly, Dugin's ideas are designed to be put into action, not to stay in the rarified atmosphere of a university.

I came away pegging Dugin's worldview as consonant with utopian anti-globalist movements that have been spawned on both left and right in the 21st century. These movements promise to right the world and usher in a "new man" and "new dawn" by defeating the 'fount of all evil': the liberal West with its capitalist/consumerist society.

Just like marketers who use urgency to push you down the sales pipeline, these revolutionaries warn the end is nigh and you've got to act now! (Spoiler: you won't get a free set of Ginsu knives.)

In the book The Struggle for the World: Liberation Movements for the 21st Century authors Charles Lindholm and José Pedro Zúquete call such revolutions "aurora" movements because they promise to bring "a liberating new dawn" and end "dark injustices."

Dugin is arguably far more eclectic than 'aurora' movement founders, synthesizing an amalgam that spans alchemy, Marsilio Ficino's neo-platonism, chaos magic (whose symbol he has adopted); Russian Orthodoxy, a slew of Eastern and Western cultural traditions and religions, and philosophers as varied as Heraclitus and Heidegger.

(Marlène Laruelle points out that rather than being a phenomenon of Dugin's evolution, this eclecticism was present from the 1990s..)

As Laruelle puts it, it's a "weird mix" combining "fascist doctrines coming from Europe in the interwar period" and "more classic Russian Orthodox messianisms." (In at least one interview, Dugin describes his criticism of liberalism as being "anti-fascist" and "anti-communist.")

Dugin wields many seeming contradictions: embracing Nazism and the Third Reich while purporting to reject racism; drawing on Satanism while rejecting America as Satanic; embracing occult literature and Russian Orthodoxy; presenting himself as a prophet-like revealer of the biblical Antichrist (America) while seemingly worshipping 'Tradition' above God (which is one biblical definition of "idolatry"); railing against interventionism of the West while calling for a no-holds-barred violent overthrow of Ukraine; and so on.


* I found myself wondering whether the eclecticism and contradictions serve (at least in part) a 'missionary' purpose: does Dugin hope to create a meta-revolution that subsumes (then leverages) other aurora movements (and communities that have some peripheral overlap with those movements)? (As the marketer of Ginsu knives once said "The challenge was to position the product so that it made every other knife you owned obsolete...")
* Or perhaps the eclecticism and contradictions also serve to make the belief system opaque or to intentionally confuse?

Unlike other aurora movements, Dugin's worldview has some degree of influence in Russia and, according to Western journalists, is a big influence on Putin. This latter point appears to me to be unsupported.

That's not to say that Dugin is not impactful, though. For example, Laruelle indicates that he exercises a "quasi-monopoly" over a "certain part of the current Russian ideological spectrum" and is "the only major theoretician among this Russian radical right. He is simultaneously on the fringe and at the center of the Russian nationalist phenomenon."

This new, imagined world has Russia as the center, Putin as its prince, and Dugin as its mystic-philosopher, unencumbered by material reality.

Heiser's book is a basic introduction to Dugin's worldview. A 126-page book won't suffice to provide a robust understanding of Dugin's thought but this one does provide a useful orientation to his sources and influence in contemporary Russia (and beyond).

Heiser's sources provide some starting points for reading more. [For starters, I'm currently reading Marlène Laruelle's Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields and some of her online papers.]

As I read this book I became increasingly interested in the question, "What exactly is the evidence that Dugin is 'Putin's Brain'?" And I found no credible answers.

Dugin as Putin's whisperer is a Western conception it seems.

Marlène Laruelle writing in Unherd, explains that it's not so simple as there being "a sort of Rasputin figure" and "There is no one “guru”. The reality is more complex: there are multiple ideological sources who have blended to cause the disastrous invasion ."

On Dugin specifically, she adds:

Among the contemporary ideologists, Alexander Dugin is also excitedly cited by Western observers as a strong influence on Putin. And Dugin has, indeed, always been a virulent enemy of an independent Ukraine . . .

But Dugin does not have the ear of the Kremlin. He is too radical in his formulations, too obscurely esoteric and cultivates a level of “high” intellectual references to the European far-right classics that cannot meet the needs of the Putin administration. He was one of the original promoters of a geopolitical notion of Eurasia and of Russia as a distinctive civilisation in the Nineties, but these themes became mainstream apart from and even against Dugin’s use of them in the following decades. He was never a member of any of the many co-opted civil society organisations, even if he was able to cultivate to some patrons in the military-industrial and security services circles.

I'm uncertain as to the provenance of the idea that Dugin is "Putin's brain" but this claim appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine, and spread to countless other outlets including the BBC, CBS News, NPR, the L.A. Times, The Washington Post, and more. Worse, some of these journalists found a few areas of commonality between Putin's statements and Dugin's thought and use that as proof of an intimate connection even though many of these ideas have existed for decades — or centuries — in dozens of Russian movements. (See Leslie Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with Dugin.)

(This reminds me of medieval scribes - if they introduced an error, it would soon be copied by all the other scribes . . . )

Suffice it to say that Dugin has gained a significant amount of press coverage in the West due to this seeming misconception. In this way, the press seems to be -- ironically -- functioning as a PR arm for Dugin and, as a result, setting unforeseen events in motion.

Note: Looking for some free sources on Dugin online?

Memri.org provides translations of some of Dugin's statements made after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war began, such as this one:

"For us, Christianity is the Russian Orthodox Church, and no one else. We are conducting an eschatological military operation, a special operation held at the vertical plane between Light and Darkness at the background of an end-time situation."

Also see Marlène Laruelle's work including the downloadable PDF "Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right?"

[Jim Street · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book does a decent enough job of making Dugin's position as clear as it can be. That position however is quite flawed logically and may be that way on purpose, as it is pretty clearly designed to entrap a variety of ideologies into a "shared" goal of destroying the "globalist empire of America." It is an excellent peek into what Putin's Russia may be up to and a startling look into why some many American Trump-era Republicans find commonality with Putin - they also want to end the world, as they too are part of a doomsday cult.

I whole-heartedly disagree with Dugin's conclusions, but agree with Heiser's closing statement:
"The West has been built upon the foundations of Athens and Jerusalem—the history of the West has been one of a quest to seek and uphold the truth. The answer to a post-modern disinterest in truth is not to substitute a lie in place of the truth, or to invoke chaos while abandoning Logos, but to return to the truth."

I believe we need to address the issues of how Western civilization has interacted with the rest of the world and grow from that seeking to find restitution, not destroying it outright. A stable society is preferable to a collapsed one.

Another passage that highlighted Dugin's lack of logic skills is:
"Civilizations are cultural and religious communities—not ethnic-national ones."

Assuming this is a Dugan quote: there is a flawed understanding underlying this statement, communities are based on cultural commonality to ensure survival - tribalism. Tribalism can occur free of religion. What Dugan describes as not being the foundation is exactly what he is attempting to explain. He clearly describes identity through the negation of individualism and acceptance of someone else's created ideology. In other words, host bodies for his version of concentration of power.

Also the idea that the West is founded on ethno-nationalism is ridiculous. The West was not planned, it has been a chaotic evolving Mass of all that is. There is no guiding hand. Other than perhaps pragmatism and opportunism.

[OSCAR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un vil libelo antiduginista y que reveló más las ideas de superioridad moral y espiritual que sostiene su autor que realmente un estudio más racional sobre las ideas duginistas.

Desconfié del libro desde que comenzó a usar a Voegelin para analizar la visión duginista pero sobre todo el tono peyorativo con el cual trató las ideas tradicionalistas me pareció ofensivo; a tal grado llegó su desprecio que prácticamente la obra se basó en obras secundarias que son valiosas en sí mismas, pero que hacen desmerecer la calidad de este texto. Dugin es el enemigo porque desprecia la perfección que son los EEUU. En una especie de efecto mimético, Heiser ve a Dugin y a la Rusia putinista como el monstruo que es su propio país.

Por el tufillo moralino del libro llegué a sospechar que lo escribió un clérigo, y ¡vaya que mi predicción resultó correcta!.

La baja calidad de la investigación del libro es inversamente proporcional a la velocidad con la cual uno lee el texto. Esta relación explica la difusión del libro, porque busca más que estudiar la doctrina de Dugin y/o los tradicionalistas, condenar al ruso, supuesto ideólogo de Putin (ocurrencia que el mismo autor, inconscientemente o producto de su celo imbécil, en varias citas que hizo de otros documentos, de cierto modo invalidó) y en modo análogo a Huntington, localizar al inimicus y por tanto proceder contra él. Considero necesario que mejor lean, si odian a Dugin o no lo tragan, la obra de Mark Segdwick, "Against the modern world" o los articulos de Marlene Laurelle, que al menos no proceden de manera tan apasionada o si lo hacen, lo enmascaran mejor.

[Nick121235 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sort of just feels like a collection of quotes. There is some original analysis but the vast majority of the paper/book (not sure which it is) is quotes from other writers and his explaining them. It's not bad but I just felt like my time would be better spent reading the books he was citing. In addition, I very much disagree with the idea of the "gnostic mass movement". Not only is this unnecessary at his description simply lines up with fascism itself which is often esoteric and eschatological, but it is a misuse of the term "gnostic", and the conflation of Marxism, Progressivism, and Fascism all into the same category is laughable. It had some interesting information but like I said I just felt like I should read his cited works instead of this book.

[Taylor Menconi]

"The answer to a post-modern disinterest in truth is not to substitute a lie in place of the truth, or to invoke chaos while abandoning Logos, but to return to the truth."

This might be the most niche and disturbing book I've ever read. It reads much more like a hyper-academic dissertation on the dark metaphysical foundations of Aleksandr Dugin's worldview than a political exposé or philosophical overview, and I think it requires a ton of background knowledge just to track with it. That said, I do think it was worth the effort, especially given how much Dugin's ideas influence Putin's worldview and the ideological underpinnings of modern Russia.

Dugin is not just some fringe thinker. His worldview fuses Traditionalism, Marxist metaphysics, Orthodox mysticism, occult and fascist esotericism, and Russian messianic nationalism. He casts the "Atlantic Evil Empire"—i.e., the U.S. and liberal democracy—as the geopolitical manifestation of the antichrist, argues that chaos is a spiritual virtue, and sees Russia's destiny as an apocalyptic, sacred empire purging the world of liberalism and order. That should be a giant red flag, and his own words are even more chilling:

"For Dugin, the original triad of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reveal to the initiated that the Third Reich, just like Third Rome, will be the kingdom of the Holy Spirit."

Reading things like that made my skin crawl. As someone who follows Christ, I genuinely couldn't bring myself to write down many of the quotes. There are far worse, more explicit examples I could include, but even copying them felt dishonoring. The heresy and blasphemy in Dugin's language are so stark, it felt like a direct slap in the face to God—twisting what is holy, true, and good into something grotesque and demonic. It left me deeply and genuinely grieved. The book rightly shows how Dugin hijacks Christian language to build a gnostic mass movement rooted in activist mysticism, with Marx and medieval alchemy cited as guides for his vision of reality transformation.

Googling terms like "Golovin Circle" or "Arctogaia" led only to obscure academic articles, if anything at all. It's all so niche and insular it almost feels like it was meant to confuse—layered with words like theozoological, apocalypse, metaphysics, occult, and Soviet underground. The irony is, the book is about gnostic ideology, and reading it actually felt gnostic. Even understanding the bare bones of Dugin's worldview feels dense, gatekept, and built on a "special knowledge" only a select few can access. Yet, it's real, and I know that because I was shocked by how many things I read in this book that I had also heard in Ukraine. What my Ukrainian friends could not always articulate or explain to me (especially in English)—vague sentiments, shadowy references—clicked into place while reading this. This book gave language to that murky realm.

Perhaps what I hated most is that Dugin's language borrows so heavily from Christian tradition and symbols, only to distort them beyond recognition. He doesn't just oppose the West; he spiritualizes that opposition, turning geopolitics into an eschatological war. It's an ideological, mystic-political cult of chaos masquerading as philosophical depth to people who don't know any better.

What seemed like ideological posturing in 2013 hits with alarming clarity today:

"As the situation in Ukraine continues to unfold, Russia experts have always considered that country the crown jewel—and even a necessary anchor—of any successful version of the Eurasian Union."

That's why I read this book, and it's also why I was furious when I saw someone like Tucker Carlson platform and praise Dugin. If you know anything about what Dugin actually believes, it's indefensible.

The final chapter argues that gnostic mass movements don’t begin with the masses—they start with intellectuals who sell chaos as salvation. Once those ideas catch, they spread like fire, and that's exactly what this is.

This book isn't for everyone, and it's definitely not easy to read. However, for anyone serious about understanding Russian ideology, authoritarian mysticism, or the spiritual dimensions of political warfare, it's essential. Just brace yourself. This isn't a book I’d ever recommend casually.

"To this writer, it seems as if there is a rage behind such passages in Dugin's writings which rebels at the notion that there is One Who Decides, and Who Judges. If this is accurate, then it is His decrees that lead Dugin to rage against 'global dictatorship' and to call upon his readers to invoke chaos, and abandon logos... And the reality which confronts the West is not, ultimately, some profound mystery uncovered by a mystic who has stepped forth from the pages of a Dostoyevsky noel, any more than the West confronted some profound and invincible economic law when it stopped the forces of Marxism-Leninism from turning the world into a vast prison camp. Eurasianism—viewed from the standpoint of citizens of the American Republic—is an attempt to excuse the efforts of one nation to enslave other nations in the name of some otherworldly purpose."

[Artemis Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esoteric Third-Worldist hyperborean Marxism-Leninism-Hitlerism-Stalinism is real.

[K B · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting regarding the current Russian leadership and who is masterminding the puppetry from behind the curtain. Worth knowing.

[Phinehas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critique of Aleksander Dugin's Eurasian project written by a Lutheran Bishop.

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

If u want to know who is the new Rasputin is, read this book.