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This article analyzes two key components of the political situation in modern Russia–?Eurasianism and patriotism–?by replacing them in two parallel histories. The first is the territorial histories of a land upon which Slavic Orthodox and Turkish Muslim populations have been living together since the embryonic beginnings of a state. Taking into account the ethnic and religious diversity in Russia allows one to understand the spreading of a Eurasian way of thinking as a middle ground, and the strength of the patriotic fervor as a tool of unity.The second is the history of relations between Russia and the West, marked by fascination and misunderstandings and which reveals Russia’s peculiar adaptation to modernity. These two components are then combined with the central question of the evolution of federalism in Russia. Putin’s restoration of a pyramid of patriotism, combined with that of allegiance, has marked the beginning of political liberalization in these regions, especially in Russia’s national republics. The fact that this “democratic” evolution has now reached Moscow demonstrates the necessity for a study of the center-periphery to understand the future of the Russian political regime and the durability of “Russian democracy.”