The Return of the Russian Leviathan

ISBN-13: 9781509536047 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 250 str.

Sergei Medvedev

Recenzje

'This is the best treatise on contemporary Russia since John Reed's pamphlet that shook the world one hundred years ago. Moving from the endangered Arctic to the occupied Crimea and from the politics of the body to memory wars, Medvedev reveals a political machine based on vanity, manipulation and fear of its own people. Broad-ranging in scope and mind-blowing in details, this book is a must for everyone who is concerned about Russia's present and future.'Alexander Etkind, author of Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience'Is Putin's regime a Russian peculiarity or is it simply the Russian version of a global trend? Was it inevitable or was it accidental? If you are worried by these questions, read this passionately analytical book.'Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia'While there are many books about President Vladimir Putin's Russia, there are few that nail its realities with the same combination of academic precision, acerbic wit and anger as this. Well-researched analysis might be expected of a professor of Moscow's Higher School of Economics, but not necessarily the humour and passion that run through the striking work.'The Financial Times'Medvedev's portrait of Russia is brilliant, wry and minutely observed -- and, like its title, often bitterly ironic.'Times Literary Supplement'acerbic and splendidly argumentative... dazzling.'New Internationalist"As a portrait of the cultural moment and debunking of the Kremlin's talking points, [this] book is brilliant."Los Angeles Review of Books

Spis treści

Preface to the English EditionPart One: THE WAR FOR SPACESovereign Territory...with No RoadsThe Smoke of the FatherlandSacred IceCrimea as a Territory of the SubconsciousDrum SoloJihad in DonetskGlobal BiryulyovoSeduced by GeopoliticsProfession: InvaderNoughts and CrossesThe War with PokémonKremlin FirewallA Sovereignty Full of HolesPart Two: THE WAR FOR SYMBOLSThe State's Game ReserveThe Elite Avenue...to DeathAn Ode to Shuvalov's DogsMissile ManiaTank InvasionPurveyors of ThreatsChurchill Dreamt It All UpA Racketeer with RocketsThe Torch ProcessionOlympic SchizophreniaThe Thugs' GameThe Sovereign from the Back-Streets of St PetersburgPutinism and Questions of LinguisticsWar of the AvatarsPart Three: THE WAR FOR THE BODYPunitive HygieneThe King's BodyThe Condom as a Sign of ProtestThe Protocols of the Elders of SodomTest for HomophobiaThe 'Miss Prison' ContestBreaking 'The Silence of the Lambs'The Politics of the Female BodyA 4-by-4 as a Teaching AidA Russian PotlatchA Requiem for RoquefortThe Land of Abandoned ChildrenThe Amputation of ConscienceThe Fiasco of 'Operation Sochi'Part Four: THE WAR FOR MEMORYHysterical RevisionismThe Holiday of 5 MarchThe Oblomov and the Stoltz of Soviet PowerA Bear of a ManMaidan in MoscowA Holiday without TearsWaltz of the Urals ChekistsThe Return of the GhostsTyrants DestroyedRussian ResentmentThe Flower RevolutionWho's Afraid of Svetlana Alexievich?The Private Nuremberg of Denis KaragodinThe Battle at the River IsetConstitution DayGlossary and List of AbbreviationsNotes

O autorze

Sergei Medvedev is Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.