Krasnov was an Eurasianist, an ideology that saw Russia as an Asian nation, having more in common with other Asian nations such as China, Mongolia, and Japan rather than with the Western nations. Some aspects of the novel such as its nostalgia for the pre-Peterine Russia have led to Krasnov being misidentified as a Slavophile, but he was opposed to the ideology of the Slavophiles, arguing that Russia had little in common with other Slavic nations such as Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. In common with other Eurasianists, Krasnov believed that Russians had a natural affinity with the peoples of Asia, and in "Behind the Thistle" Russia has extremely friendly relations with other Asian nations such as China, Mongolia and India (through India was part of the British empire in 1927, Krasnov assumed India would be independent by the 1990s). Unlike other Eurasianists who saw the Soviet Union as a "stepping stone" towards the development of a Eurasianist Russia, Krasnov's anti-communism led to the rejection of the "stepping stone thesis". In the 1920s-1930s, Krasnov was a popular novelist with his books being translated into 20 languages. Krasnov favored Asian values with the focus of putting the collective ahead of the individual, and for this reason, argued that Russia was an Asian nation that should look east towards other Asian nations instead of looking west. "Behind the Thistle", however, met with an overwhelmingly negative critical response in 1927, being panned by reviewers in the majority of Russian emigre journals. Despite the negative reviews, the expression "behind the thistle" became popular with the younger Russian emigres as a way describe the Soviet Union.