Saviors of the Traditional World: Anti-modern Ideas in Brazil and Russia

Brown bag seminar of the Center for Latin American Studies with Ricardo Pagliuso Regatieri (Institute for Human Sciences Vienna/UFBA), Mikhail Suslov (ToRS/KU), Fabrício Chagas-Bastos (IFS/KU) and Georg Wink (EGR/KU).

The visit that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro paid to Vladimir Putin a few days before the invasion of Ukraine sparked surprise across international media. Though scheduled long before and mainly focused on trade, the meeting was interpreted as symbolic - but of what? Especially considering that, until then, Brazil’s far-right government had been a notoriously loyal follower of the US. Beyond the world of diplomacy and economic interests, both countries have an interesting commonality: the rise of strong “conservative” movements that have revitalized anti-Western and even anti-modernist ideas, building, instead, on imaginaries of Christian civilization, national exceptionalism and vocation. Such traditionalist ideas were promoted in these "other empires" by the ideologues Aleksandr Dugin and – recently deceased – Olavo de Carvalho. We invite you to a reflection on how these movements and ideas are present in the politics of Brazil and Russia and the implications for their geopolitics.

Book launch

The seminar will be followed by a book launch of "Brazil, Land of the Past: The Ideological Roots of the New Right" (by Georg Wink). Coffee/refreshments will be offered.