Free standard shipping on all orders
  • Visa
  • Master Card
  • American Express
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • JCB

The Empire of Meaning: Essays on Russia’s State Ideology and Civilizational Politics book cover

1st Edition

The Empire of Meaning Essays on Russia’s State Ideology and Civilizational Politics

Edited By Marlene Laruelle Copyright 2027
320 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book examines the ideological foundations of post-2022 Russia, arguing that the Putin regime is not merely defined by personalist rule, authoritarian tactics, or foreign policy decisions. Instead, it is underpinned by a carefully constructed framework of ideas, symbols, and narratives that together form an “empire of meaning.” Through in-depth analysis of official discourse, intellectual... Read more

Introduction

Marlene Laruelle

Part 1: Ideological Foundations of the Russian State 

1. The Empire of Meaning

Marlene Laruelle 

2. Decontesting the Past: The Narrative of Russian Statehood and the Ideology of Putin’s Regime

Ekaterina V. Klimenko

3. A Never-Ending Rupture: The Contested Memory of Perestroika in Russia

Guillaume Sauvé 

Part 2: Affect, Moral Sovereignty and Epistemic Closure 

4. Slovo Patsana and the Aesthetics of the Russian Antiworld

Maria Engström

5. The Phantasmatic Dimension of Culture Wars: The Case of Social Conservatism

Dmitri Uzlaner 

6. Expo ‘Russia’: Narrating Past, Present and Future of Russia’s One Big Happy Family

Abigail Levene

7. Wave Genetics, DNA Genealogy, Telegony: Narratives of Pseudoscience in Contemporary Russia

Dima Kortunov

Part 3: War as Ideological Catalyst

8. What role did ideology play in triggering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

Juliette Faure

9. Russian Propaganda Tactics in Wartime Ukraine

Jade McGlynn

10. Russian Voenkory as ‘Affective Entrepreneurs’ and the Mediatization of ‘Moral Sovereignty’

Mariya Y. Omelicheva 

11. Politicized Law Enforcement and Its Ideological Orientation

Alexander Verkhovsky 

Part 4: Diffusion and Projection

12. Faith in Foreign Policy: The Geopolitics of Russian Orthodoxy in the Global South

Ivan Grek

13. The Concept of Neocolonialism in the Russian Regime’s Ideology

Mikhail Suslov

14. Russia’s “Anticolonialism” and the Design of an Illiberal International Disorder

Jules Sergei Fediunin

Biography

Marlene Laruelle, PhD, is a Professor at Luiss University, Rome, Italy. She also serves as Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program, a transatlantic initiative based in Washington DC and in Paris. Before joining Luiss, Marlene Laruelle was Research Professor at The George Washington University (GW) for 15 years and the Director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) there. Trained in political theory, her research explores contemporary ideologies in Russia, Europe and the United States, as well as the transnational nature of illiberalism.

Add to Cart