Symbolism and regime change in Russia

Abstract

Symbolism and regime change in Russia, by Graeme Gill, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, vii + 230 pp., $109.95 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-107-03139-5In Symbolism and Regime Change in Russia, Graeme Gill explores the major facets of post-Soviet Russia's political discourse. His work juxtaposes the Soviet system, defined by a totalist ideological narrative, with modern Russia, which he claims is characterized by an inability to craft a coherent series of symbols and values integrating society's past and future.While admitting that he could have explored more arenas such as fine art, literature, or home life, Gill correctly argues that Russian political evolution has traditionally been driven from the top down (10). He therefore focuses the lion's share of his analysis on speeches, statements, and actions involving the presidency, the major parties, and the central political institutions. This reveals that the post-1991 elite faces a major difficulty. Most of its actors are not newcomers, but were steeped in the old system and rejection of the Soviet era would damage their credibility. A post-Soviet narrative however, which is required to legitimize their new and supposedly superior institutions, cannot ignore the abuses of the Soviet era. The result is that figures like Boris El'tsin and Vladimir Putin found it impossible, in the case of the former, to build consensus around a rejection of the Soviet period, while the latter was equally unable to craft a vision which mixed Soviet and post-Soviet history into one narrative.Gill also demonstrates that this inability to come to terms with the Soviet era is felt not just by the elite, but by society at large. Regular citizens, on the one hand, are generally supporters of the concept of post-Soviet democracy but, on the other, celebrate the Soviet Union's industrial, martial, and technological achievements. For many, participation in the communist experience is too fresh a memory to reject as an aberration and return to a pre-revolutionary Russian historical narrative. While much is focused on responses to reputable public opinion surveys from Lavada and VTSiOM toward issues such as public acceptance of the crimes of Joseph Stalin, more ground-breaking is the analysis of the changing architectural face of modern Moscow. Gill's examination of the static nature of Soviet-era institutes and street names, the development of Westerninspired commercial districts in conjunction with the preservation of Stalinist structures, and the preservation and significance of Soviet-era war memorials will certainly excite the social geographer as much as the political scientist.Furthermore, a key value of this research is the contribution it can provide, beyond the study of Russian political development, to the field of global security. While international relations are based on concepts of anarchy, self-defence, and classical power, considerable insight can be gained from discussing the potential primacy of domestic politics. This is especially relevant given the prevailing international atmosphere between Russia and the West over crises such as Ukraine. …