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This book focusses on Russia's cultural statecraft in dealing with a number of institutional cultural domains such as education, museums and monuments, high arts and sport. It analyses to what extent Russia's cultural activities abroad have been used for foreign policy purposes, and perceived as having a political dimension.
Building on the concept of cultural statecraft, the authors present a broad and nuanced view of how Russia sees the role of culture in its external relations, how this shapes the image of Russia, and the ways in which this cultural statecraft is received by foreign audiences. The expert team of contributors consider: what choices are made in fostering this agenda; how Russian state authorities see the purpose and limits of various cultural instruments; to what extent can the authorities shape these instruments; what domains have received more attention and become more politicised and what fields have remained more autonomous. The methodological research design of the book as a whole is a comparative case study comparing the nature of Russian cultural statecraft across time, target countries and diverse cultural domains.
It will be of interest to scholars and students of Russian foreign policy and external relations and those working on the role of culture in world politics.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Russia’s Cultural Statecraft 2. Higher Education as a Tool for Cultural Statecraft? 3. Fine Arts and International Relations: Russian Museum Diplomacy 4. Forging Common History: Russia’s Cultural Statecraft and the Soviet Second World War Monuments in Europe 5. ‘Russian literature will fix everything’: The Read Russia Project and Cultural Statecraft 6. The Future State: Russian Cinema and Neoliberal Cultural Statecraft 7. Soviet Legacies and Global Contexts: Classical Music and Russia’s Cultural Statecraft 8. Stagecraft in the Service of Statecraft? Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 9. International Events in the Service of Cultural Statecraft: The Sochi Olympics and the World Festival of Youth and Students 10. Sport as Cultural Statecraft: Russia and the Kontinental Hockey League 11. In Search of Past Glory: Russia’s Cultural Statecraft in the Age of Decline
About the author
Sirke Mäkinen is University Lecturer in Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland, and the Head of the Nationwide Expertise in Russian and Eastern European Studies (ExpREES) programme.
Tuomas Forsberg is Director of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS) at the University of Helsinki and Professor of International Relations at Tampere University.
Summary
This book focusses on Russia’s cultural statecraft in dealing with a number of institutional cultural domains such as education, museums and monuments, high arts and sport. It analyses to what extent Russia’s cultural activities abroad have been used for foreign policy purposes, and perceived as having a political dimension.
Building on the concept of cultural statecraft, the authors present a broad and nuanced view of how Russia sees the role of culture in its external relations, how this shapes the image of Russia, and the ways in which this cultural statecraft is received by foreign audiences. The expert team of contributors consider: what choices are made in fostering this agenda; how Russian state authorities see the purpose and limits of various cultural instruments; to what extent can the authorities shape these instruments; what domains have received more attention and become more politicised and what fields have remained more autonomous. The methodological research design of the book as a whole is a comparative case study comparing the nature of Russian cultural statecraft across time, target countries and diverse cultural domains.
It will be of interest to scholars and students of Russian foreign policy and external relations and those working on the role of culture in world politics.
Additional text
"This book is a fascinating contribution to both IR and Russian studies, as it elaborates a useful tool for understanding the role of culture in international politics and presents the analysis of various domains of Russia’s cultural statecraft thus exploring an important but largely neglected aspect of its international activity."
Olga Malinova, Higher School of Economics, Russia.
"This innovative analysis of cultural statecraft shifts the focus away from the competitive and ultimately reductionist notion of ‘soft power’ to the inherent grace of cultural achievement and interactions at the state and interstate level, theorising the elements of contention and cooperation and combining them into a coherent new paradigm. A brilliant and original team effort."
Richard Sakwa, University of Kent, UK.
