ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three main geographical metanarratives currently in circulation. All of them argue that a specific element gives Russia its uniqueness among nations: Russia's territory is larger than other countries in the world and forms a specific continent; Russia is going higher in the universe; and Russia is going farther north. This geographical metanarrative also circulated among Soviet elites during the late Soviet period, mostly thanks to Lev Gumilev, son of those "accursed poets" Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev. Formerly a remote and secure northern frontier of the Soviet Union, the Arctic has quickly become a potential forepost for twenty-first century Russia due to climate change and new discoveries in energy resources and technologies. Geographical metanarratives are not the only ones shaping Russia's nationalist thinking – historical metanarratives, which extend Russia's past as far back as possible, are also part of this dynamic and innovative crafting of Russia's new imaginaries.
