Russian Nationalism and the Politics of Soviet Literature

Russian nationalism, increasingly important as the Russian Federation finds its place in the world, is not a new phenomenon. Who were the Russian nationalists before the creation of today's Russia? What were their views? What was their political influence? This book seeks answers to these questions by looking in detail at the last decade of the USSR through the eyes of a group of Russian nationalist intellectuals gathered around the literary journal Nash sovremennik . The author suggests that, in the Twenty-first-century, a specifically Russian type of nationalism, ethnic and statist, could provide the ideological underpinning for a new authoritarianism.

Autorentext

SIMON COSGROVE gained his PhD from the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, London, in 1997. Between 1999-2003 he was Team Leader for the European Initiative for Democracy & Human Rights, a grant-making programme of the European Commission for NGOs working to promote human rights, at the Delegation of the European Commission to Russia. He is currently human rights Programme Officer for the MacArthur Foundation's Initiative in the Russian Federation and post-Soviet states (Programme on Global Security and Sustainability).

Zusammenfassung
Russia under President Putin stands, as often before, at a crossroads. Can the reforms of the 1990s provide the foundations for a stable, democratic society, or will a new authoritarianism, more in keeping with Russian political traditions, take shape? With the collapse of empire and the creation of the Russian Federation, Russian nationalism is becoming increasingly important in Russian politics. Yet Russian nationalism is not a new phenomenon. Who were the Russian nationalists before the creation of today's Russia? What were their views? What was their political influence? This book seeks answers to these questions by looking in detail at the USSR from 1981 to 1991 through the eyes of a group of leading Russian nationalist intellectuals gathered around the literary journal Nash sovremennik. The author suggests that, in the twenty-first century, a specifically Russian type of nationalism, ethnic and statist, could provide the ideological underpinning for a new authoritarianism.

Inhalt

A Note on the Text Preface A Background to the Study Nash Sovremennik and Russian Nationalist Ideology, 1981-91 The Brezhnev Succession Crisis and the Russian Challenge Andropov and the Supression of Russian Statist Nationalism From Chernenko to Gorbachev Aleksandr Yakolev and the 'Cultural Offensive' Ligachev and the Conservative Counter-Offensive Chief Editor Kunyaev: From Gorbachev to El'tsin Epilogue: Seven Paradoxes of Russian Nationalism Editorial Structures and Policy-making Biographical Notes on Selected Editors and Authors Bibliography