Featured
The Future Is Not Yet Written (Unstuck in Time)
I'm making up the introduction as I'm going along
Brother 2: Son of Brother (Russia's Alien Nations)
If we say (and show) enough times that there are no more questions that need to be asked about the nature and future of Russia, it will become true
The Fandom Menace (Russia's Alien Nations)
Nationalism as fandom
Salting the Earth (Russia's Alien Nations)
This is still fantasy, but it is neither that of Tolkien nor Warcraft.
The Tank Driver of Mordor (Russia's Alien Nations)
Meet the Jeffrey Epstein of Middle Earth
Sovok-lore (Russia's Alien Nations)
Even though the sovok is the product of Soviet/Russian urban folklore, he does not usually fit the traditional genres associated with it.
A Tribute to “Sovok of the Week" (Russia's Alien Nations)
For a brief, glorious time in the 2000s, a website established by three post-Soviet emigres devoted itself exclusively to the topic of sovok.
A Sovok is a Person, Place, or Thing (Russia's Alien Nations)
"Sovok” becomes a diagnosis of a familiar, lamentable condition.
The Descent of Soviet Man (Russia's Alien Nations)
“Homo Sovieticus” is not just Latin; it’s a biological term that suggests both an evolutionary process and even the rise of separate species.
The New Soviet Man and His Gerontologist (Russia's Alien Nations)
Some of the men who populated Brezhnev’s famously geriatric politburo may have been “New Men” or even “New Soviet Men” in their youth
New Men in Love (Russia's Alien Nations)
The "New People suffer from a socialist version of the “terrible perfection” Barbara Heldt identified as the defining flaw of nineteenth-century Russian heroines
Very Nice! (Russia's Alien Nations)
Borat exemplifies a particular kind of Soviet and post-Soviet shame
A Hero of Someone Else’s Time (Russia's Alien Nations)
An alien visiting Russia, whether that alien is from America or Mars, is going to require a huge amount of information to get up to speed
New Book, New Blog: Russia's Alien Nations
As some of you know, I spent a couple of years writing the first draft of "Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism" on my blog (plotsagainstrussia.org). Now that...