Russian revolution of 1917 as interpreted by Ivan Ilyin and the eurasianists: two vectors of russian conservative journalism in the 1920s and 1930s

The article provides a comparative analysis of two interpretations of the Russian Revolution presented in the journalistic works of Ivan Ilyin and the Eurasianists. Both Ilyin and the Eurasianists saw the spiritual origins and prerequisites of the revolution in the mindset of the Russian pre-revolutionary society, primarily the Russian intelligentsia. Sharing a common attitude towards the value primacy of national identity, Ilyin and the Eurasianists radically differed in their assessments of the essence and prospects of Russian Bolshevism. This discrepancy is explained by the inconsistency of fundamental historical presumptions. Eurasianists considered the Soviet State a continuation of the centuries-old history of Russia-Eurasia. In turn, Ilyin saw in the Russian Revolution a catastrophic break in historical continuity.