The Long Hangover - Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past

In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides a deeply reported, bottom-up explanation of Russia's resurgence under Putin. By cleverly exploiting the memory of the Soviet victory over fascism in World War II, Putin's regime has made ordinary Russians feel that their country is great again. Shaun Walker provides new insight into contemporary Russia and its search for a new identity, telling the story through the country's troubled relationship with its Soviet past. Walker not only explains Vladimir Putin's goals and the government's official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians and their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in World War II to the status of a national founding myth in the search for a unifying force to heal a divided country, and shows how dangerous the ramifications of this have been. The book explores why Russia, unlike Germany, has failed to come to terms with the darkest pages of its past: Stalin's purges, the Gulag, and the war deportations. The narrative roams from the corridors of the Kremlin to the wilds of the Gulags and the trenches of East Ukraine. It puts the annexation of Crimea and the newly assertive Russia in the context of the delayed fallout of the Soviet collapse. The Long Hangover is a book about a lost generation: the millions of Russians who lost their country and the subsequent attempts to restore to them a sense of purpose. Packed with analysis but told mainly through vibrant reportage, it is a thoughtful exploration of the legacy of the Soviet collapse and how it has affected life in Russia and Putins policies.

Product details

• Authors: Shaun Walker, Walker Shaun
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Trade
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2018
• EAN: 9780190659240
• ISBN: 978-0-19-065924-0
• No. of pages: 278
• Dimensions: 162 mm x 242 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Russia, HISTORY / Europe / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, International Relations, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Political science & theory, Political structure & processes, Political science and theory, The Cold War, Political structure and processes, Cold wars and proxy conflicts, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, HISTORY / Russia / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Russian & Soviet