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Paper short abstract

This research examines the exclusion of the post-Soviet space from the postcolonial theories on the global accumulation of the capital through Fernando Coronil’s (1997) magnus opus “The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela” and Azerbaijani case of "magical" petro-state formation

Paper long abstract

This paper aims to examine the natural resource extraction in the post-Soviet space through the theoretical framework on the relation of land, capital, and spatial hierarchy established in Fernando Coronil’s (1997) magnus opus “The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela” and critique Coronil’s (1997) exclusion of the post-Soviet space from the global accumulation of the capital which serves as an exemplar to the dismissal of the global postcolonial theory of the post-Soviet space. Azerbaijan has been chosen as an example here first because of its unique positioning between Europe and Asia as well as local important actors, second, because it is a particularistic case within the post-Soviet space due to being the only republic where presidential system has been operating on the basis of familial succession presenting a particular case of "magical statism", and thirdly, because of its renewed international importance in the aftermath of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Representing the intersection of territorial, political, national and international manifold of the time-space, the historical and theoretical analysis on the development of petroleum industry in Azerbaijan will present us with a “Second World” petrostate case study complementing Coronil’s (1997) work and debate the universalizing and particularistic categorizations of primitive accumulation. I argue that this analysis reveals 1) the limitations of historical boundaries global postcolonial theory expects of its units of analysis and 2) suggests that the analytical framework of the postcolonial thought extends beyond the fixed geographical and historical limits it imposes upon itself.