La Russia, il mondo e l’Occidente. Toynbee interprete della prima Guerra fredda

In the aftermath of the Second World War and the breakup of the anti-fas- cist Grand Alliance, Arnold Toynbee developed an influential reflection on the role and destiny of the Soviet Union in the new international and historical-universal scenarios disclosed by the outcome of the conflict and the incipient Cold War. Based on an extensive examination of his writings and public interventions, this article reconstructs Toynbee’s vision by focusing on the central importance he attributed to the persistent effectiveness of Russian imperial identity as a key factor in the interaction between Russia, the Eurasian world and the West.