Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History
Reasserting Control over the Past
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:24th Mar '22
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
An explosive study of how history-related practices in Russia have been effectively used by President Putin to cement his hold on power.
This book provides a bold examination of the political use of history in contemporary Russia. Anton Weiss-Wendt argues that history is yet another discipline misappropriated by the Kremlin for the purpose of rallying the population. He explains how, since the pro-democracy protests in 2011–12, the Russian government has hamstrung independent research and aligned state institutions in the promotion of militant patriotism. The entire state machinery has been mobilized to construe a single, glorious historical narrative with the focus on Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History examines the intricate networks in Russia that engage in “historymaking.” Whether it is the Holocaust or Soviet mass terror, Tsars or Stalin, the regime promotes a syncretic interpretation of Russian history that supports the notion of a strong state and authoritarian rule. That interpretation finds its way into new monuments, exhibitions, and quasi-professional associations. In addition to administrative measures of control, the Russian state has been using the penal code to censor critical perspectives on history, typically advanced by individuals who also happen to call for a political change in Russia.
This powerful book shows how history is increasingly becoming an element of political technology in Russia, with the systematic destruction of independent institutions setting the very future of History as an academic discipline in Russia in doubt.
This book is an important investigation into how the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin uses the control and interpretation of Soviet and post-Soviet history primarily as a cultural weapon in geopolitical combat ... The author skillfully organizes the study into chapters that cover how the Russian state institutionalizes the production of “historical truth”; the political centrality of the mythology of Great Patriotic War; the use of history in the mobilization of patriotism; the deployment of the Holocaust as a foreign-policy tool; and the steady, repressive exclusion of alternative, critical viewpoints about the past. * Russian Review *
[The book] provides a convincing picture of the state monopoly on the writing of history under Putin and a detailed analysis of the results of this policy in historical research and writing. The book is well-written and has an extensive bibliography. * International Journal of Russian Studies *
The Putin regime is trying to rewrite history to suppress the memory of repression and to justify itself. In this book, Anton Weiss-Wendt draws on impressive research to provide a comprehensive guide to what is happening. The result is a resource for all those who understand that the truth about the past is the sine qua non for Russia's decent future. * David Satter, Author of It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past (2011). *
Prof Weiss-Wendt demonstrates how Putin has succeeded in imposing a 'history politics' on his subjects that sacralises a mendacious version of World War II history whilst destroying Russia's pre-existing structures of historical research and education, themselves already compromised. His ultimate objective is seemingly to crush domestic dissent, discredit former vassal states Moscow wants to reabsorb, and draw Western democracies into a new ‘Yalta’ radically recasting European security arrangements. Weiss-Wendt’s imposing analysis is objective and the tone courteous. But his summaries and conclusions are clear and unequivocal.
The West’s response to this ominous ideological offensive has been weak. This is a book which all alarmed by ‘Westlessness’ should read carefully, including officials and politicians.
ISBN: 9781350203150
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
338 pages