Russia Against Modernity
1. Edition April 2023
176 Pages, Hardcover
General Reading
Short Description
Putin's war is a "special operation" against modernity. The invasion has been directed against Ukraine, but the war has a broader target: the modern world of climate awareness, energy transition and digital labor. By trading oil and gas, promoting Trump and Brexit, spreading corruption, boosting inequality and homophobia, subsidizing far-right movements and destroying Ukraine, Putin's clique aims at suppressing the ongoing transformation of modern societies.
Alexander Etkind distinguishes between Russia's pompous, weaponized paleomodernity, on the one hand, and the lean, decentralized gaiamodernity of the Anthropocene, on the other. Putin's clique has used various strategies - from climate denialism and electoral interference to war and genocide - to resist and subvert modernity. Working on political, cultural and even demographic levels, social mechanisms convert the vicious energy of the oil curse into all-out aggression. Dissecting these mechanisms, Etkind's brief but rigorous analyses of social structuration, cultural dynamics and family models reveal the agency that drives the Russian war against modernity. This short, sharp critique of the Russian regime combines political economy, social history and demography to predict the decolonizing and defederating of Russia.
Putin's war is a "special operation" against modernity. The invasion has been directed against Ukraine, but the war has a broader target: the modern world of climate awareness, energy transition and digital labor. By trading oil and gas, promoting Trump and Brexit, spreading corruption, boosting inequality and homophobia, subsidizing far-right movements and destroying Ukraine, Putin's clique aims at suppressing the ongoing transformation of modern societies.
Alexander Etkind distinguishes between Russia's pompous, weaponized paleomodernity, on the one hand, and the lean, decentralized gaiamodernity of the Anthropocene, on the other. Putin's clique has used various strategies - from climate denialism and electoral interference to war and genocide - to resist and subvert modernity. Working on political, cultural and even demographic levels, social mechanisms convert the vicious energy of the oil curse into all-out aggression. Dissecting these mechanisms, Etkind's brief but rigorous analyses of social structuration, cultural dynamics and family models reveal the agency that drives the Russian war against modernity. This short, sharp critique of the Russian regime combines political economy, social history and demography to predict the decolonizing and defederating of Russia.
Chapter 1. Modernity in the Age of Anthropocene
Chapter 2. Petrostate
Chapter 3. Parasitic governance
Chapter 4. The So-Called Elite
Chapter 5. The Public Sphere
Chapter 6. Gender and Degeneration
Chapter 7. Putin's War
Chapter 8. Defederating Russia
Endnotes
Index
Shaun Walker, The Guardian
"a sophisticated and sustained critique of Putin's Russia... Etkind has published an important essay that stimulates rational thinking about fundamental issues that affect us all."
Eurasian Geography and Economics
"The most thought-provoking of the new crop of books about the war in Ukraine is Alexander Etkind's quick and incisive Russia Against Modernity."
The New York Times
"Etkind combines brevity and playfulness with a degree of erudition that other works covering the Russia-Ukraine conflict seldom manage."
Jon Richardson, Inside Story
"Etkind charges through the corrupt and kleptocratic history of the Putin-era state, deftly traversing complex theoretical ground ... Even the most antagonistic reader will find the work thought-provoking."
Ian Garner, The Russian Review
"[T]he book makes for a fine and accessible read, with its clarity of language and cross-cutting emphasis on nature."
International Affairs
