Constructing and contesting meta‐geographies in Russian area studies debates

Abstract This paper contributes to broader efforts to examine how ‘world‐writing’ practices operate beyond dominant area studies debates through the case of Russia. It traces the evolution of Russia's discipline of area studies through its two core meta‐geographies—the East and Eurasia, showing how they were constructed, contested and repurposed to make sense of other regions across the Soviet and post‐Soviet periods. Moving from anti‐colonial solidarities, in which the Soviet ‘East’ mediated knowledge exchange between Moscow and the decolonising world, to the revival of ‘Eurasia’ as a geopolitical project, academic production increasingly aligned with foreign policy ambitions, often framed in civilisational and expansionist terms. By situating Russian area studies within its geopolitical, institutional and disciplinary contexts, the article interrogates its entanglement with imperialist legacies and its selective engagement with Western debates, reproducing past hierarchies under the guise of alternative epistemologies.