State and Political Discourse in Russia

The collapse of the Soviet Union coincided with the de-legitimization of Marxism-Leninism as the primary state and political discourse in post-Soviet Russia.

Nowadays, instead of forming an official and explicit ideology, the Russian political space offers a multiplicity of political discourses associated with the contemporary state and its various organs, such as: the Party, the presidential administration, the bureaucracies and media or with the different places of ideological production such as scholars, think tanks and other intellectuals revealing plurality and fluidity within their political languages.

The main neo-conservative ideological constructs promoted by Moscow (its’ statism, counterrevolution and anti-‘Maidanism’, traditional values, sovereign democracy, unique civilization, nation, real Europe etc.) are apparently correllated in terms of their mutual influences, adaptations, imitations or rejections with their existing counterparts and similar notions in the West.

The apparent demise of Russian notions of Liberalism; the multiplicity of ‘liberalisms’ in contemporary Russia; the influence of the Soviet experience, perestroika, the instability of the 90s, of Western thought and foreign policies on Russia’s liberal ideas and expectations; all continue to determine the role of the remaining institutions and actors promoting political, economic and constitutional liberalism, manifesting as an alternative discourse that, although weakened, is still accredited.

Editor: 
Riccardo Mario Cucciolla
Authors:
Nadezda Azhgikhina, Alexey Barabashev, Anton Barbashin
Giancarlo Bosetti, Riccardo Mario Cucciolla, Maria Engström, Nina Khrushcheva

Mark Kramer, Olga Malinova, Andrei Melville and Vladislav Zubok

Table of contents

Foreword by Giancarlo Bosetti
The ‘Russia Workshop’ a Growing Platfrom on Contemporary Russia

Preface by Riccardo Mario Cuccilolla
How Many Political Discourses are in Contemporary Russia

Theoretical Introduction by Mark Kramer
Political Power and Political Discourse in Russia: Conceptual Ideas

Part I – The State’s Political Discourse and Ideological References in Contemporary Russia

I. The Discourse of Russian Bureaucracy and its Influence of the Political Discourse – Alexey Barabashev
II. Post-Crimean Political Discourse and Russian Foreign Policy Narratives – Anton Barbashin
III. ‘Experts’ and Pluralism of Political Ideas in Russia (2008-2016) – Olga Malinova
IV. Russia as ‘Katechon’: Neo-Conservatism and Foreign Policy – Maria Engström
V. Neo-Conservatism as National Idea for Russia? – Andrei Melville

Part II – The Demise of Liberalism: Testing the Waters on the Subject

VI. Cultural Contradictions of Post-Communist Russian (Il)Liberalism – Nina Kruscheva
VII. When Dreams Come True. Liberal Trends and Liberal Mythology in Russian Media – Nadezhda Azhgikhina
VIII. ‘Unsuccess of Russian Liberalism: Contemporary Reflections – Vladislav Zubok

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