ABSTRACT
Ilya Kukulin's chapter focuses on the “List of 100 Books” proposed by Vladimir Putin and illustrates how the ruling elites of modern-day Russia consider art as an instrument to instill “correct” values in society. While national media almost never mention the project after 2013 (primarily due to the annexation of Crimea), the idea of the list with compulsory books for leisure reading remained active and in demand. The author therefore questions why the “List of 100 Books” continues the Soviet practice of orientalizing and exoticizing non-Russian Soviet culture. The list creates an impression of Russian culture as dominant and the most modernized within the post-Soviet space, damaging interethnic relationships, which already have limited representation in the all-Russian media. Kukulin also addresses the problem of multicultural education and concludes that the teachers and social activists who want to teach young Russians how to interact with other cultures are unlikely to be interested in compulsory lists for leisure reading that reproduce the characteristics of Soviet and post-Soviet cultural policies.
