Although Putin laments the excesses of communism, he identifies two problems that ideology or otherwise a “national idea,” as a pragmatic tool, could theoretically solve: 1) a lack of moral clarity and purpose and 2) “the nationalities question.” Since resuming the presidency in 2012, Putin has engaged in a project to solve these problems by a state-directed cultural policy that is absolutely not, under any circumstances, to be called “ideological.”

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The philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) had a habit of naming each object he owned. According to émigré theologian Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958), Soloviev’s satchel was named “Grigory” and his pencil “Andrey.”

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The similarities readers have already uncovered between Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn’s  respective world-views pave the way toward further scholarship that would analyze the nineteenth-century author’s continuing legacy in the work of one of his best-known successors.

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While concerns about the Nord Stream 2 project lessening Ukraine’s leverage with Russia are justified, anxieties about growing German and European reliance on Russia may be overblown.

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The design of the two Russia-linked disinformation campaigns exposed by Facebook reveals a peculiar mix of neutrollization and trickstery in action.

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While the possibility for political change has seemed nearly unimaginable under Lukashenko’s long tenure, the penetration of global consumer culture over the past decade has nonetheless helped to shape a different type of citizen-subject, even in the absence of substantial economic reform. This emerging subject strives to achieve a set of orientations that scholars associate with neoliberal economic regimes: constant investment in the self, flexibility, self-reliance, and perpetual positivity.

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While the conflict in the East has garnered much attention in the last few years, the illegal amber market plaguing Ukraine’s northwestern region is virtually unknown to the international community.

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The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s led to the end of an era of robust cultural exchange between Russia and India, but lingering artifacts of this longstanding cultural affair still exist within literature, music, and theater, awaiting excavation by historians, scholars of literature, and eager internationalists.

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Despite not being an official government entity, or perhaps precisely because it is not associated with the Kremlin and thus is not seen as a propaganda tool, the Kontinental Hockey League thus serves as an ideal vehicle for Russian cultural diplomacy, projecting a favorable image of successful, Russia-based hockey clubs while also creating people-to-people ties that foster an interest in Russia across several countries.

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Placing Dostoevsky and Chernyshevsky’s references to the U.S., then engaged in a civil war, within historical context offers a new lens for understanding the authors’ divergent visions of Russia’s future.

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