In the Name of the Nation

"With In the Name of the Nation, Marlene Laruelle has produced an important and engaging reinterpretation of nationalism's role in Putin's Russia. Drawing on an impressively broad range of sources, she warns against treating Russian nationalism as either the realm of radical extremism or the natural expression of any unique, civilizational Russian alienation from the West. In fact, she presents a strong case that Russian nationalism today is best understood as a reasonably successful Kremlin strategy to reconnect with and reunify Russian society after the tumultuous 1990s and to promote the 'triple goal' of modernization, normalization, and - as provocative as it might sound - westernization. At the same time, this is a nationalism that privileges the state over the individual, the officeholder over the citizen. Covering everything from film to skinhead attacks to high politics, this book will greatly interest anyone who wants to learn more about either Russia or the more general phenomenon of nationalism." - Henry E. Hale, The George Washington University

"The aim of the book, to produce a study of Russian nationalism which looks at the connections of the phenomenon with society as a whole and the state, and not only the extreme right, is praiseworthy. Dr Laruelle is seeking to do more than this, however. She is aiming to write a textbook about contemporary Russia, using Russian nationalism as a sort of prism through which to analyze contemporary Russia." - Dr. Peter Duncan, Senior Lecturer in Russian Politics and Society, University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies