ABSTRACT
If we have failed so far to establish a direct string of evidence showing that Mackinder’s 1904 heartland concept found its way to the minds of the Russians, who, nevertheless, developed their own geopolitical tradition, it might be helpful to look for some other clues and indicators. The first obvious choice is German culture, with which Russian intellectuals were most familiar. Even if there is no evidence that Mackinder’s ideas attracted the Russian mind during the remaining years of the Tsarist regime, surely, following the Bolshevik Revolution, Russo-German contacts were so numerous that it seems reasonable that the Russians encountered Western geopolitical ideas in one form or another.
