Tag: Russian nationalism

Staunton, December 21 – Putin’s opposition to Europe and the US “is acquiring the aspects of a real holy war, not at the level of metaphor as in the old Soviet song but in the completely literal religious sense,” but except for its core belief in Russian imperial statehood, the new faith on which it […]

Staunton, December 21 – The collapse of oil prices and the ruble along with Western sanctions have destroyed any basis for the grand bargain that the Kremlin had made with the Russian people – economic growth in exchange for political passivity – and raised the question as to whether there can be a new one […]

Staunton, December 5 – In 1969, Bertram Wolfe published his classic study, “Krupskaya Purges the People’s Libraries” in the London-based journal Survey, an essay in which he described the way Lenin’s wife began putting a straightjacket on intellectual life in the Soviet Union. Now, in yet another revival of the Soviet past, Vladimir Putin is […]

Staunton, November 13 – A remarkable change has come over Vladimir Putin in recent months, one that few anticipated but that carries with it some serious risks. He is no longer offering answers and plans; instead, the Kremlin leader is asking Russians to share his emotions over past events and the lack of respect he […]

In a revealing article for The Daily Star, Scott Hesketh and Colin Cortbus write about training camps in Wales where neo-Nazi thugs “are being drilled in unarmed combat and fighting using knives and assault rifles”. According to the authors, anti-terror police are monitoring the activities of the training camps which – under the leadership of […]

Staunton, November 10 – The fighting in the Donbass is a clash between two types of nationalism, civic Ukrainian nationalism of a Western type and “a unique crusade” against that kind of nationalism that is powered by a Russian “flight from freedom” Erich Fromm described in his classic 1941 book on the rise of fascism […]

Staunton, October 13 – Most commentaries on Russian attitudes since the Crimean Anschluss have focused on the role of the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus in creating a new sense of Russian national identity. But Yevgeny Ikhlov argues that what is going on has deeper roots than that. In a commentary October 13, the Moscow commentator says […]

Staunton, October 17 – Given that Vladimir Putin can barely acknowledge Ukraine as a country and has twisted language about Russia’s role there beyond recognition, some Ukrainians think that it would be well for Ukrainians and others as well to use a different name for the Russian Federation than the one Putin does. That name, […]

Staunton, October 10 – In 2011-2012, Emil Pain says, “a new elite Russian nationalism” concerned about the promotion of civil values and democracy emerged, but this “new nationalism couldn’t break itself away from its imperial foundations, and after the unification of Crimea, all its [positive] civil qualities disappeared from view.” As a result, the Moscow […]