PANIC

The rise of right-wing populism in Central Europe coincides with the revival of pan-ideologies. Cases of Turanism promoted by the ruling party in Hungary and Pan-Slavism popular among right-wing activists in Slovakia pose a need to study these intellectual projects simultaneously in comparative and historical perspectives. The common feature of these competing traditions is a contradictory combination of racism and self-orientalism. Adepts of Turanism and Pan-Slavism often define themselves as belonging to a non-European race and simultaneously sympathize with typical far-right consensus on white supremacy. Why are pan-ideologies rooted in outdated pseudo-scientific theories so popular among right-wing populists of Central Europe today? To answer this question, we need to conduct a multidisciplinary study combining social anthropology and history. The proposed project aims to understand how modern adaptations of pan-ideologies differ from the original versions popular in the first half of the 20th century; and how these transformations correlate with the aims and resources (such as access to state institutions) of the ideologues. The novelty of the research project includes the suggestion to look at right-wing ideologies as phenomena embedded in the colonial and postcolonial history of the region. I propose to study Turanism and Pan-Slavism as products of contact zones, co-evolving and constantly influencing each other and affected by overlapping colonial regimes and postcolonial conditions. Following the guidelines of the Horizon Europe Programme to support social cohesion and inclusiveness, we need to conduct a focussed study of processes of polarization. The research project aims to explain how pan-ideologies attract new followers and why they are becoming popular again since the beginning of the last century.

2023

2025