Russia's Political Culture
An in-depth research project that scrutinizes Russia’s political culture and ideological production, and maps its actors, institutions, and societal relevance
ABOUT
Russia’s Political Culture
Political culture is central to any explanation as to why the Russian authorities decided to go to war against Ukraine. This project explores the Kremlin’s ideological ecosystems, made of institutions, funders, patrons, identifiable symbolic references, influence entrepreneurs, and media platforms.
Even if the space for competing ideological projects has shrunk, the regime is still agitated by many different vested interest groups, including grassroots illiberal movements, who are all involved in ideological engineering and indoctrination processes. This project also explores the genealogy of this ideological production and its historical roots, for instance by tracking influence of “White” (tsarist) ideology in today’s Russia.
A special issue of East European Politics exploring forms of grassroots conservatism in Russia and Central Asia, the role of grassroots actors, their agency, and their ideological agenda.
WHAT WE DO
Read our latest publications
White Russians and the International Far Right
What links White Russian émigrés, Nazi Germany, Western intelligence agencies, Prussian aristocratic families, some clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? This international research project hopes to answer this seemingly eccentric question by rebuilding the history of a key theme of 20th-century history: the fight against the Soviet Union.
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An exploration of the European far right’s Russophile tendencies across the 20th century beyond anti-Communist narratives.
How the Black Notebooks have dramatically reshuffled the deck of Heidegger studies, and how Dugin has been reading and reinterpreting Heidegger’s philosophy.
Who were the Russian emigrants who welcomed the taking of power by the National Socialists and what were their motivations for collaboration?
An history of the White Russian émigré community’s contribution to the global anti-Communist struggle in France, based on declassified archives from the French police and intelligence services.
The life of Vasily Shulgin, the living embodiment of tsarist Russia and the White cause in the Soviet Union, passing on the memory of a bygone era to new generations of Russian nationalists.
Alexei von Lampe (1885–1967) played a critical role in White Russian history as a link between the old White guard and the Nazi regime, as well as with the collaborationist Russian Liberation Army led by General Vlasov.
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Contact
Feel free to write or call us
+1 (202) 9946340
russiaprogram@gwu.edu
russiaprogram@gwu.edu
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