Böcker av Dina Khapaeva

Two decades before the war against Ukraine, a "special operation" was launched against the Russians' historical memory, aggressively reshaping the nation's understanding of its history and identity. The Kremlin's militarization of Russia through World War II propaganda is well documented, but the glorification of Russian medieval society and its warlords as a source of support for Putinism had not yet been explored. This book offers the first comparison of Putin's political neomedievalism and re-Stalinization and introduces the concept of mobmemory to the study of right-wing populism. It argues that the celebration of the oprichnina, Ivan the Terrible's regime of state terror (1565-1572), was fused with the rehabilitation of Stalinism to reconstruct the Russian Empire. The post-Soviet case suggests that the global obsession with the Middle Ages is not purely an aesthetic movement but a potential weapon against democracy.The book is intended for students, scholars, and non-specialists interested in understanding Russia's anti-modern politics and Russians' support for the terror unleashed against Ukraine.

Investigates the emergence and meaning of the cult of death. Over the last three decades, Halloween has grown to rival Christmas in its popularity; dark tourism has emerged as a rapidly expanding industry; and funerals have become less traditional. This book considers these phenomena as aspects of a single movement, documenting its development in contemporary Western culture.