Overview

What explains Putin's enduring popularity in Russia? In The Red Mirror, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova uses social identity theory to explain Putin's leadership. The main source of Putin's political influence, she finds, lies in how he articulates the shared collective perspective that unites many Russian citizens. Under his tenure, the Kremlin's media machine has tapped into powerful group emotions of shame and humiliation--derived from the Soviet transition in the 1990s--and has politicized national identity to transform these emotions into pride and patriotism. Culminating with the annexation of Crimea in 2014, this strategy of national identity politics is still the essence of Putin's leadership in Russia. But victimhood-based consolidation is also leading the country down the path of political confrontation and economic stagnation. To enable a cultural, social, and political revival in Russia, Sharafutdinova argues, political elites must instead focus on more constructively conceived ideas about the country's future. Integrating methods from history, political science, and social psychology, The Red Mirror offers the clearest picture yet of how the nation's majoritarian identity politics are playing out.

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9780197502976

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In focusing mainly on Russian government of the last decade, Sharafutdinova has deepened our understanding of Russia, its citizens, and the autocratic President Putin. She scrupulously and often brilliantly examines many different groups and topics, and thus reveals Putin's skill at undermining the West and restoring the nation's self-respect. But this has also led to economic stagnation and a need for some oppression, factors that, she believes, ultimately threaten his rule. -- Peter Reddaway, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, George Washington University Gulnaz Sharafutdinova's new book focuses on a first order question for any reader who wants to understand Russia or, more generally, modern autocracies: why Putin's popularity was so high in 2014-2018 despite dismal economic performance? The Red Mirror traces the origins of Putin's narrative, explains its appeal to Russian public, and explores the nuts and bolts of the media machine Putin uses to deliver the narrative in the most effective way. -- Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics, Sciences Po, Paris

Author Information

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova is Reader in Russian Politics at King's College London. She is the author of Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism Inside Russia (Notre Dame University Press) and co-editor of Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964-1985 (Lexington Press).

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