The focal point presents the findings of the project ‘Eurasia in Global Dialogue’ being carried out at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (IWM). It is edited by Clemena Antonova at the IWM. The focal point is an extension of the earlier focal point, ‘Russia in Global Dialogue’ that ran in Eurozine and at the IWM from 2012–2018 and was edited by Tatiana Zhurzhenko. Further texts have been contributed by journals in the Eurozine network.
In collaboration with
1812 in Russland und Europa
Inszenierung, Mythen, Analyse
Der Russlandfeldzug, zu dem die Grande Armée im Juni 1812 aufbrach, markiert in der politischen, sozialen und kulturellen Geschichte Europas eine Zäsur. Wenige Monate später war Moskau niedergebrannt. Napoleons Armee zerfiel auf dem Rückzug, das Russische Reich stieg zum “Retter Europas” auf. Diese Kriegsereignisse führten vor 200 Jahren zu einer Neuordnung Europas. Sie ging mit innergesellschaftlichen Veränderungen einher, beschleunigte die nationale Selbstfindung und wurde zu einem Gegenstand der Erinnerungsarbeit.
The interaction between the legal-rational and neo-patrimonial state provides the key to interpreting developments in post-communist Russia, argues Richard Sakwa. This tension precludes assigning Russia simply to the camp of authoritarian states, but it also means that Russia’s democracy is flawed.
Marina Akhmedova spent four days in the company of drug users in Yekaterinburg, central Russia, and was met with a picture of desperation, punctured by love, humanity and misplaced hope. Shortly after it was published, this harrowing piece of reportage journalism was banned in Russia.
Can Russia be modernized?
Problems, causes, opportunities
Plans to modernize Russia’s economy are resisted by bureaucracies benefiting from the country’s status as natural resource appendage of the developed world. That dependency on energy exports hinders political and economic progress is certain: but is high-tech the solution?
Blatantly rigged elections are the easiest way for the Putin regime to mimic the authoritarian power it does not possess. December’s protests destroyed Putin’s reputation of being in control; even genuinely competitive elections would be unable to restore his legitimacy.
Russia’s democratic inertia results from the dominance of private over universal values, writes writes Samuel A. Greene. But what are the factors that could lead to change? While pressure from below is likely to provoke consolidation of the elites, long-term economic decline might encourage greater European integration and reform of the country’s institutions.
The politics of no alternatives or How power works in Russia
An interview with Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky, the Ukrainian-born former dissident turned “political technologist”, abruptly fell out with the Kremlin in April, reportedly over “indiscreet comments” made about the 2012 presidential elections. In interview with Transit a short while before, Pavlovsky gave a revealing inside view of the workings of political power in the former Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia.
Related Focal Points
25 articles
52 articles
75 articles
114 articles