Red Mirror - Putin''s Leadership and Russia''s Insecure Identity

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.

List of contents

• Preface


• PART I


• 1. The Return of the 'Soviet' or the 'National' in Putin's Russia?


• 2. The White Knight and the Red Queen: Blinded by Love


• PART II Of History and Identity: Recent and Very Recent


• 3. Shared Mental Models of the Late Soviet Period


• 4. The New Russian Identity and the Burden of the Soviet Past


• PART III Of Leaders and Opinion-Makers: Top-Down Political Construction


• 5. Constructing The Collective Trauma of the 1990


• 6. MMM for VVP: Building the Modern Media Machine


• 7. Le Cirque Politique a la Russe: Political Talk Shows and Public Opinion Leaders in Russia


• Conclusion


• 8. Searching for a New Mirror: On Human and Collective Dignity in Russia


• Epilogue

About the author

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).

Product details

• Authors: Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Gulnaz (Reader in Politics Sharafutdinova, Sharafutdinova Gulnaz
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.11.2020
• EAN: 9780197502945
• ISBN: 978-0-19-750294-5
• No. of pages: 254
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / General, Geopolitics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries, Comparative Politics, Development Studies