Description
Book SynopsisIs Russia Fascist? argues that the charge of "fascism" has become a strategic narrative of the current world order. Through a detailed examination of the Russian domestic scene and the Kremlin's foreign policy rationales, it disentangles the foundation for, meaning, and validity of accusations of fascism in and around Russia.
Trade ReviewIs Russia Fascist? is a work that offers a worthy contribution to the ongoing conversation and debate about how to define contemporary Russia and project where it is heading. Regardless of what a reader might think about "illiberalism" as an answer, Laruelle offers many good analytical insights. Her command of the facts of recent Russian political history is solid and is to be taken seriously.
* H-Net *
If you want to know what's been happening in the Russian far right, this is undoubtedly the book for you. Is Russia Fascist? provides excellent insights into the ideological state of play in modern Russia. It also does a thorough job of demolishing the accusations that Russia is a totalitarian state.
-- Paul Robinson, Ottowa University * Irrussianality *
In this book Marlene Laruelle not only seeks to answer the question "Is Russia fascist?" but to provide a comprehensive analytical framework for how to study the concept of fascism in the first place. In doing so, she engages with scholarship in multiple fields across the social sciences and in public discourse, which makes this book of interest not only to political scientists but to Russia watchers more generally.
* The Russian Review *
Is Russia Fascist? provides a clear, balanced assessment of contemporary Russian politics, serving not only as a sensible dissection of the status of fascism in Russia, but also as a guide to that country's problematic political structures.
* Modern Language Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Russia and the Symbolic Landscape of Fascism
1. Russia's "Fascism" or "Illiberalism"?
2. The Soviet Legacy in Thinking about Fascism
3. Antifascism as the Renewed Social Consensus under Putin
4. International Memory Wars: Equating the Soviet Union with Nazism
5. The Putin Regime's Ideological Plurality
6. Russia's Fascist Thinkers and Doers
7. Russia's Honeymoon with the European Far Right
8. Why the Russian Regime Is Not Fascist
Conclusion: Russia's Memory and the Future of Europe
