Russia and Modern Fascism

New Perspectives on the Kremlin's War Against Ukraine

Taras Kuzio, Ian Garner, Andreas Umland

• Publisher: ibidem
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9783838280158
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Russia seems to be hurtling toward fascism. Vladimir Putin and his allies-domestic and foreign-have obliterated and colonised Ukrainian cities in a "e;holy war,"e; committed over 100,000 war crimes , introduced Draconian domestic crackdowns on free speech and political opposition, and rewritten the constitution to seize power in perpetuity. The state and its propagandists declare their intentions to destroy the Ukrainian state and commit genocide against the Ukrainian people, to overthrow the liberal international order, and to recreate the Tsarist and Soviet empires. Meanwhile, the Russian population languishes in a militarising culture in which civic life has been replaced by a cult of war, past and present. Each of these phenomena invites comparisons with past fascist regimes. This volume gathers leading experts in the first scholarly study of a new Russian fascism that draws on distinctly modern forms of control and violence as much as on historical precedents. An array of theoretical debates and case studies from across disciplines makes this a pioneering study of modern Russian politics. The volume s contributors include Jaroslava Barbieri, Paul D Anieri, Jolanta Darczewska, Maria Domanska, Ian Garner, Joanna Getka, Andreas Heinemann-Gruder, Taras Kuzio Alexander J. Motyl, Andreas Umland, and Michal Wawrzonek.

Table of contents

• Contributors
• Contents
• Preface by the Series Editor
• Foreword
• Introduction: Russia’s Twenty-First Century Fascism
• Putin’s Russia as a Fascist Political System: Deconstructing and Reconstructing a Contentious Concept
• How Fascist Is Putinism? Three Uses of the Concept of Generic Fascism for Understanding Russia’s War Against Ukraine
• Narrative Reversal and the Aggression Against Ukraine: Testing and Understanding Russia’s Fascisation
• The Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodox Imperism
• Military and Propaganda Narratives Justifying Russia’s ‘Holy War’ Against Ukraine
• The Making of a Homo Putinicus: Fascist ‘Patriotic Education’ in Putin’s Russia
• From School Benches to Frontline Trenches: The Fascist Paradigm of Russia’s Youth Indoctrination and Militarisation in Occupied Ukraine, 2022-2025
• Mass Destruction and Ukrainian Erasure: The Fascist Rebirth of ‘Great Russia’ in Mariupol
• Conclusion: Fascism with Adjectives?