“'The Russian idea,' a term introduced by Dostoevsky in 1861, asserts Russia's spiritual and moral superiority over the liberalism, individualism, and materialism of the West. The idea has metastasized into the violent “Russian World” ideology of Putin and the Moscow Patriarchate. This book is an essential guide for understanding how that happened. It shows, as the editors write, “how readily major elements of Russian political, philosophical, religious, and literary culture have lent themselves to appropriation in the cause of an aggressive and repressive authoritarianism.”

Randall Poole, Prof. of Intellectual History at the College of St. Scholastica and co-director of the Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought

“This original and thoughtful volume of essays proves that the proper intellectual response to Putin's war in Ukraine is not canceling Russian culture but re-thinking it.”

Ivan Krastev, Albert Hirschman Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM) and chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia

“A must-read for those who want to understand the intellectual genealogy of Russia's ideological construction and delve into the continuities, disruptures and reinterpretations of Russian philosophy by the Kremlin.”

Marlene Laruelle, Professor of International Affairs and Political Science and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University