Full Description
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.
Contents
Introduction, Part I: Framing Russia's Regions, 1. "The Six Waves of Russian Regionalism in European Context, 1830-2000", 2. "Provinces, Regions, Circles, Grids: How Literature Has Shaped Russian Geographical Identity", Part II: Rethinking European Russian Identities, 3. "Militarized Memory: Patriotic Re-branding in Post-Soviet Pskov", 4. "Wayfinding, Map-making and the Holy Springs of the Orel Region", 5. "'How is Voronezh not Paris?' City Branding in the Russian Provinces", Part III: Russian Identities in the Urals 6. "The Strange Case of a Regional Cultural Revolution: Sverdlovsk in the Perestroika Years", 7. "Enchanted Geographies: Aleksei Ivanov and the Aesthetic Management of Ural Regional Identity", Part IV: Russian Identities in Siberia, 8. "Siberian Regional Identity: Self-Perception, Solidarity, or Political Claim?", 9. "Tomsk Regional Identity and the Legacy of the Gulag and Stalinist Repression" Part V: Regional Identities outside the Orthodox Zone, 10. "National Identity in Post-Soviet Tatarstan: Orthodox Missionaries in Twenty-First Century Tatar Literature and Film", 11. "Women, Memory, and Resistance: Dealing with the Soviet Past in the Volga-Ural Region", 12. "'Why Does Russia Need Hadji Murat's Head?' Hadji Murat, Dagestani Identity, and Russia's Colonial Exploits", Afterword: "The Power of the Provinces".
