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The Grand Strategy of the Russian Empire, 1650-1831. By John P. LeDonne. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 261 pages. $60.00.
The decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union has seen a renewed interest in the study of pre-1917 Russia, among scholars both within and outside the former USSR. On the surface, the removal of communism as a unifying ideology has ruptured continuities in Russian foreign policy and made the analysis of Russian strategic thought more problematic, while former Soviet republics searching for new identities and roles in the post-Cold War era have added complexity to the situation. John LeDonne, a prominent political scientist specializing in the history of early Tsarist Russia, has developed an analytical framework for understanding Russian "grand strategy" during the period of imperial expansion from 1650 to 1831. LeDonne's model supports his argument for a continuity of Russian strategic goals and policies, determined to a large extent by geopolitical concerns, many of which remain relevant to 21st-century Russia.
LeDonne uses "grand strategy" to refer to Russian efforts to use political, military, and economic means to achieve hegemony over the Heartland, a vast continental area which included the territory of the former Soviet Union, as well as Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Iran. In LeDonne's model, based on the concepts of Halford Mackinder, the Heartland is surrounded by two groups of Coastland states: the European Coastland on the west, and the Monsoon Coastland on...