ABSTRACT
Contemporary Russia is often viewed as a centralised regime based in Moscow, with dependent provinces, made subservient by Putin’s policies limiting regional autonomy. This book, however, demonstrates that beyond this largely political view, by looking at Russia’s regions more in cultural and social terms, a quite different picture emerges, of a Russia rich in variety, with different regional identities, cultures, traditions and memories. The book explores how identities are formed and rethought in contemporary Russia, and outlines the nature of particular regional identities, from Siberia and the Urals to southern Russia, from the Russian heartland to the non-Russian republics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 13I|57 pages
Framing Russia’s regions
chapter 2|26 pages
Provinces, regions, circles, grids
part 71II|70 pages
Rethinking European Russian identities
part 141III|45 pages
Russian identities in the Urals
chapter 6|17 pages
The strange case of a regional cultural revolution
chapter 7|26 pages
Enchanted geographies
part 187IV|39 pages
Russian identities in Siberia
part 227V|66 pages
Regional identities outside the Orthodox zone