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Putin and the return of history : how the Kremlin rekindled the Cold War / Martin Sixsmith with Daniel Sixsmith

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024Copyright date: ©2024Description: 1 online resource (357 pages)Content type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online
ISBN:
  • 9781399409865
  • 1399409867
  • 9781399409902
  • 9781399409872
  • 1399409875
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • DK510.763
Online resources:
Contents:
Introduction -- Separate ways -- Not with a bang -- Zlost' -- Broken promises? -- NATO's final solution? -- The Great Patriot War; chosen glory and historical truth -- Versailles, Weimar, and Russophobia -- Shared past, divergent presents -- Memory wars -- Euromaiden and the president's fears of revolution -- Crimea and territorial memory -- Donbas-Kyiv and Moscow's problem child -- The Putin paradox and the hollow regime -- Holy war -- Countdown to conflict -- Resistance, denial, and disinformation -- A crisis of liberal democracy -- Conclusion
Summary: An original history of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics and rekindled the Cold War.Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has reshaped history. In the decades after the collapse of Soviet communism, the West convinced itself that liberal democracy would henceforth be the dominant, ultimately unique, system of governance - a hubris that shaped how the West would treat Russia for the next two decades. But history wasn't over. Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case, what happened to change him?Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics of aggression: the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia's mission to change the world.
List(s) this item appears in: Electronic Books | الكتب الإلكترونية
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Date due Barcode
Online Resource Online Resource UAE Federation Library | مكتبة اتحاد الإمارات Online Copy | نسخة إلكترونية Link to resource Not for loan

Includes bibliographical references (pages 334-343) and index

Introduction -- Separate ways -- Not with a bang -- Zlost' -- Broken promises? -- NATO's final solution? -- The Great Patriot War; chosen glory and historical truth -- Versailles, Weimar, and Russophobia -- Shared past, divergent presents -- Memory wars -- Euromaiden and the president's fears of revolution -- Crimea and territorial memory -- Donbas-Kyiv and Moscow's problem child -- The Putin paradox and the hollow regime -- Holy war -- Countdown to conflict -- Resistance, denial, and disinformation -- A crisis of liberal democracy -- Conclusion

An original history of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics and rekindled the Cold War.Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has reshaped history. In the decades after the collapse of Soviet communism, the West convinced itself that liberal democracy would henceforth be the dominant, ultimately unique, system of governance - a hubris that shaped how the West would treat Russia for the next two decades. But history wasn't over. Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case, what happened to change him?Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics of aggression: the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia's mission to change the world.

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