The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia - by Mikhail Suslov & Per-Arne Bodin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

More than 700 'utopian' novels are published in Russia every year. These utopias - meaning here fantasy fiction, science fiction, space operas or alternative history - do not set out merely to titillate; instead they express very real Russian anxieties: be they territorial right-sizing, loss of imperial status or turning into a 'colony' of the West.

Contributors to this innovative collection use these narratives to re-examine post-Soviet Russian political culture and identity. Interrogating the intersections of politics, ideologies and fantasies, chapters draw together the highbrow literary mainstream (authors such as Vladimir Sorokin), mass literature for entertainment and individuals who bridge the gap between fiction writers and intellectuals or ideologists (Aleksandr Prokhanov, for example, the editor-in-chief of Russia's far-right newspaper Zavtra). In the process The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia sheds crucial light onto a variety of debates - including the rise of nationalism, right-wing populism, imperial revanchism, the complicated presence of religion in the public sphere, the function of language - and is important reading for anyone interested in the heightened importance of ideas, myths, alternative histories and conspiracy theories in Russia today.

Review Quotes

"Suslov and Bodin have assembled a comprehensive guide to some very strange (but very fascinating) worlds. Some of them are frightening to visit, but the book's readers could not be in better hands." --Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, USA

"Speculative fiction does not just imagine the future of Putin's Russia - one of its primary tasks is to process the traumatic legacy of the Soviet Union's collapse. Thus it is not a coincidence, or a trick of marketing, that makes speculative fiction of all sorts (utopian, dystopian, science fiction, fantasy, alt-history, horror) the most widely read literature in Russia today. This volume is a much-needed guide to key authors and trends in post-Soviet utopian writing." --Yvonne H. Howell, Professor of Russian and International Studies, University of Richmond, USA

About the Author

Per-Arne Bodin is Professor of Slavic Languages at Stockholm University.

Mikhail Suslov is Assistant Professor of Russian History and Politics at University of Copenhagen.