From Ivan the Terrible to Vladimir Putin: the Enduring Cyclicality in Russian Modernization and State-Building Paradigm

Abstract This article contends that Vladimir Putin’s regime is contextualized by the foundational paradigm established by Ivan IV . Faced with the challenges of an interregnum and competition with the West, Ivan IV constructed an imperial national identity, identifying authoritarian rule as the only solution for both imperatives. This forced permanent limitations on Russian attempts to modernize, explicitly negating any adaptation threatening the authoritarian structure. Determined to be recognized by the West purely on its own terms, Russia would replicate the recurring pattern of attempting to achieve that validation by force. Putin’s policy of partial modernization and imperial expansion represents the latest iteration of the enduring cycle.