For respective years, especially after the outbreak of the crisis in Russia's relations with the West against the background of the Ukrainian conflict, we have been dealing with a doctrinal redirection of Russia's improvement dynamics to Asian areas. Siberia was the focus of interest of various think tanks.
There is small talk and writing about this in Poland, due to the fact that for most Poles this area is simply a terra incognita. Events related to the improvement of Siberia die in floods of information and silence. Excluding Russia from global circulation gives it more and more mystery and even exotic characteristics. In addition, the “return to the East” promoted in Russia is associated back to Asian and imperial roots, and these point to civilizational uniqueness and centuries-old opposition – since time Alexander Newski – for Western temptations and anti-Russian crusades. This can't delight the Vistula due to the fact that it contradicts the logic of the anticipation of dealing erstwhile and for all with an enemy empire.
European illusions
Russia has long been in naivety that European empowerment will give it a permanent place in a “family” civilized like Western nations. After the dissolution of the USSR there was no deficiency of fascination (another time in the past of this country) with any kind of octadentism and Europhilia. However, all attempts to get closer to the West proved futile, as Russia’s weakness became an chance to gain fresh advantages over it. The integration of Russia into the integration processes of the West from the beginning was a dream, and on the part of the West it was a simple fraud. By the way, it is curious why a large part of the Russian elite, possibly with the president himself Vladimir Putin at the head, he suffers so much from the Western complex and this hating Europe.
Against this background, efforts made in the first decade of the 21st century to activate the Far East and launch the North Sea Road were a good starting point for the improvement of a comprehensive "road map" erstwhile ties with Western Europe and the US were almost completely broken. Thus, turning to the east called "siberisation" has no alternative, as the western vector was virtually blocked.
The Russians, or more specifically various analytical centres, build a negative communicative around Europe, distinguishing somewhat the United States, which despite conflicting signals from the president Donald Trump, they distance themselves from supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia. In Russian propaganda there is simply a very negative speech about Western Europe, but besides zealous nouvres from Central and Baltic Europe. It is stressed that the top European powers specified as France, Germany and the United Kingdom of large Britain and Northern Ireland, not to mention others specified as Spain and the Netherlands, were the epicentre of all the major disasters of humanity – colonialism, racism, genocide, exploitation and discrimination.
With respect to modernity, most attention is paid to the degeneration of "liberalism", which in the systemic-political edition is transformed into imitation of authoritarian designs. The Russians are convinced that the engagement of the western elites on the side of Ukraine in the ongoing war is the consequence of the dismissed complex from many centuries ago and the form of retaliation for the historical disasters suffered, from the "dymitriad" beginning, by Poltava, Borodino, in Stalingrad and Berlin ending. This syndrome definitely deserves psychohistorical research.
Russia has found itself in a situation where it has an "old" European state, curious not only in utilizing Ukraine, but besides in relying on its own achievements. This is served by the horrendous reinforcements and the climate of confrontation, which at the same time justifies the right existence of the Union-European elites and the full bureaucratic device of Brussels. Thus, without negating historical ties with Europe and the West, Russia focuses on building a fresh identity, based on a separate and self-sufficient North-Eurasian civilization. This direction of reasoning is guided by the "Idea-Dream of Russia" task presented in the form of a study by the Council of abroad and Defence Policy in the summertime of 2025.
Historical Russia has repeatedly saved from external invasions the callback of its uniqueness and the distinctness of civilization. Both political and academic narratives appreciate the Byzantine and Mongolian influences as crucial conditions for cementing an empire in a vast territory, but besides as conditions of self-existence and alone. Even Russia's top enemies are incapable to undermine the importance of these foundations.
Siberia and its meaning
Siberia appeared for centuries as a mythical backdrop of the natural Russian empire. At the same time, the image of cold and inhospitable Siberia developed for centuries. This area, which was not friendly for natural reasons, was a place of messengers and katorgi for opponents of further Moscow and Petersburg regimes. In search of etymological sources, the Kazakh word "sabyr" is recalled, primarily associated with suffering. Today, Putina Russia is trying to build a fresh legend, not only due to climate warming, but due to geopolitical overestimation. Siberia can become a promised land, a land of fresh and unlimited opportunities.
The importance of Siberia was even more mythological erstwhile it was placed in the “geographical core of history” presented by Halford John Mackinder in 1904. This key area was to be the nucleus of the planet Island, a natural fortress, ensuring control over the remainder of the globe. The appropriate Siberia, covering the territory east of Ural and west of the water departments separating the basins of the Pacific and Arctic Ocean, almost precisely coincides with the contours of Heartland.
The Russians are convinced that without learning Siberia, it is impossible to realize their national past and character. The size of an infinite space of about 13 million km2 (approximately 77 % of the total) determines all another references. It gives birth to a unique experience of spatial and cultural distances, utmost natural phenomena and "inpopulation". This second aspect concerns the immense demographic imbalance between the sparsely populated areas and the European part of Russia, in which 3 quarters of the population are concentrated. According to Rossat's data, in 3 national districts: Uralski, Siberian and Far East, there are presently about 37 million people, which represents almost a 4th of the full population of Russia.
The conflict is presently underway to make a coherent concept of utilizing Siberian resources to boost Russian power. First of all, the story of the alleged "raw curse" is questioned. She is allegedly to blame for the deficiency of comprehensive industrialisation and modernisation that distinguished Western capitalism. In explaining this phenomenon, attention is paid to nonsubjective considerations. With immense space and low population density, industrial production was simply unprofitable. The interior marketplace was besides tiny and the transport costs prejudged the deficiency of export competitiveness. In this situation, Siberia's natural wealth, including energy resources, has become Russia's direct asset in global trade. These processes were carried out under the control of a State that redistributed resources and profits according to priorities to keep military power so as not to divide the destiny of the "seasonal" powers. These include, for example, the Nobility Republic, which was incapable to defend itself and keep its state of possession from the times of the top imperial expansion in the 17th century.
In present-day Russia is besides seeking to overthrow another story that Siberia's wealth is at a tiny cost, almost "free". For a long time, the past of the conquest of Siberia and the Far East has been obscured by accounts of “European civilization missions”. Meanwhile, from the Jermak run (1581-1585), through long clashes with nomadic tribes, to a immense settlement effort, this is an extraordinary past of an costly and demanding tremendous self-sacrifice of transformation of a civilization-cultural giant land area.
The conquests of the colonial Western powers were accompanied by publicity and heroics. In the case of Siberian conquerors, there was no epic story. In terms of scale, the past of Russian expansion to Siberia and the Far East is comparable, and even surpasses the Spanish conquest of America. Although the conquerors of Siberia had established as many cities and forts as Alexander Macedonian erstwhile did, and many battles deserve the same respect that Caesar's battles deserved, yet in European consciousness, to this day, he repents the belief that Siberia has become Russia as "as a gift". possibly this is the consequence of the specificity of the Russian Empire, which included successive peoples and cultures within a single political organism, providing them with peaceful survival.
There is another reason for Siberia's recovery in Russia's global strategy. Although Russia already in the 17th century on the basis of the Treaty of the nephrine (1689) began to usage Siberia's resources in duty-free trade with China, it was, however, treated “after the stepmother” in global trade, during the tsarist times and in russian times. Moscow and St. Petersburg utilized its assets in global trade to their own account. For example, the central authorities set customs limits for Siberian products (for example, the Chelabin customs limit from 1896 to 1913 for butter and Siberian flour). This led to mobilisation to increase competitiveness with products from the European part of Russia, but besides to animosities and disputes between regions and the centre.
Regardless of all adversities, including regional specificities (geographical, demographic and cultural), Siberia has become a constitutional and integral component of the imperial empire, rooted since Peter the large in continental Europe. For the Russians it became a reason for pride and respect for the complexity of civilizational conditions, for strangers – a origin of humility.
The geopolitical empowerment of Siberia occurred in the 20th century, mostly influenced by the Eurasian concepts developed among the Russian emigration of the first decades of this century (Mikołaj Trubietkoj, Piotr Sawicki, Piotr Suwczyński, Gierogi Wiernadski, Gierogi Florowski, later Lew Gumilow). It was during the Stalinist period that Eurasian identity was imposed on the imperial awareness of European Russia/ZSRR. The opinion has gradually been spread that Siberia, through its specificity, decides on the Eurasian character of that country.
The improvement of Russia's Siberia is the consequence of many ventures dating back to the second half of the 19th century, times Sergei Witte and Peter Stolypin. The construction of the trans-Syberian railway first took into account the strategical and economical values of the region in the context of Russia's rivalry with the Western powers in Asia. In turn, transport, energy and industrial megaprojects from russian times made the region a reserve of power in the event of a threat, which was an utmost existential experience during the large Patriotic War. Today's industrial bases, especially the Ural and Western Siberian ones, remind of the peculiar function of the infrastructure base, deciding on the state's survival.
Geopolitical importance
Siberia's perception of Arctic improvement has changed for decades. The Northern Siberian Magistral task is 1 of the most crucial elements of the global transport corridor between Europe and Japan through Sakhalin, as is the intercontinental railway line through the Bering Strait to North America. The plans besides include the Transcontinental advanced velocity road Pusan/Pekin-Moscow-Berlin-Rotterdam. The crisis in Russian-European relations causes poles to have a detrimental effect on the implementation of these plans. Closing borders and breaking contracts slows the chances of internationalising Siberian potential. Building corridors and transport bridges must wait for better times.
The Russians are aware that exports of natural materials in the unprocessed state origin a failure of profits that are generated abroad. Therefore, the imagination of the Siberian complex, based on the ‘full cycle’ metallurgy, means the operation of copper ore, iron, titanium, magnesiumite, uncommon earth metals, in parallel with the improvement of processing capacity, so that products for highly developed industries, including rocket and space industries, can be produced on site.
The discussions on the future of Siberia besides consider due to circumstances and costs, the concepts of "selective" development, based on the concentration of the population and forces in a tiny number of centres. This corresponds to "space compression" and "reservation" of natural resources. There are besides ideas for the “green specialization” of Siberia, including the creation of national parks, nature reserves, various forest bioresources, hunting, fishing and others.
Direction Eurasia
There are intense debates in Russia on a fresh definition of Eurasian power in cultural, geographical and socio-economic terms. Against the background of its transcontinental location, the concept of "civilization corridors" is referred to as a fresh function of "transmitter" of material and spiritual values, organization experiences and scientific, technological and artistic achievements between different communities (nations, states and their groupings).
Declared roles have a chance of being realised only if they encounter a affirmative consequence from the global environment. In the current situation, there is much to propose that "parallel corridors" (east-west) do not have a chance of full launching them. Russia so has hopes of their activation in the meridian (north-south) direction, towards the mediate and mediate East countries, India and China, and east Asia and the Pacific.
Due to spatial range, Siberia and the Far East play an crucial function in the implementation of these projects. After all, there is simply a hazard that through the Belt Initiative and the Road that distances Russia, China will take control of “civilization corridors”. The belief in its own Eurasian specificity may not be adequate to defend the current state of possession.
One argument for Russia to play an crucial function in integrating Eurasian space is the specificity of its soft power. In the context of the transmission of values and models of the organisation of social life, Russia attaches large importance to intensifying interethnic and interconfessive dialogue. Historically, they inherit the common penetration of Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. Due to the alternatively amazing power for Europeans to attract towards Asian countries and peoples (cultural attractiveness, language communication, absorbent labour market) The Russians manage to avoid the migration crisis facing EU Europe. It besides deserves attention to the conventional values, which are the salt in the eye of bizarre defenders of political correctness and inclusiveness in the West.
Russia is presently focusing on war effort and defence against unprecedented force from Western sanctions. "Return to the East" is so waiting for a comprehensive conceptualization and consistent implementation. There is no deficiency of criticism in the Russian “orientalists” circles about the departments liable for integrating and modernising land and sea transport routes, for reacting besides slow to the challenges arising from the depolarisation of the global strategy of forces.
Arctic way and Poland
In Poland, fewer observers realise, with the ongoing confusion around the blockade of supplies of energy resources from Russia, what is the economical importance of the Arctic region for the top powers and economical groups in the age perspective. It can be said without exaggeration present that civilization resembles the function of the Mediterranean to the ancient world, the Baltic Sea to the Hanseatic mediate Ages, and the Atlantic Ocean to the geographical discovery era.
The Arctic sea trail, oriented solely on transport, has the possible to become an crucial terrestrial-oceanic civilization corridor. The advantage of this transport way for many countries is that it is subject to the control of 1 country which guarantees equal conditions of usage and its safety. Unfortunately, for Western enemies of Russia, this is yet another reason to torpedo this venture precisely due to Russian exclusivity.
We live in a time of decomposition of old forces and disinformation of the current rules of the game in global relations. Assigning Russia's imperial urges and aggressiveness, which can be explained by its consequence to Western expansion to the russian East, Western observers are incapable to admit that the conquest and exploration of vast areas of Siberia and the Arctic were possible through strategies to avoid confrontation with abroad peoples and the ability of the "Slavic imperialists" to make conciliatory communities. It should not be surprising, therefore, that in the ongoing Western propaganda war with Russia, "siberisation" is read as a manifestation of interior "imperialisation" and a sinister policy towards Eurasian neighbours. However, Russia, through its assertive attitude and determination to defend its rations, proves that it is capable of building a fresh "measure of gravity", without the participation of the collective Western and, in particular, of its unfriendly European Union. Through its Eurasian and Siberian policies, even erstwhile inconsistency occurs, it proves that it is an crucial link to the "carrier structure" of the global system.
Prof. Stanisław Bielen
Think Poland, No. 45-46 (9-16.11.2025)
