Everyday Politics in Russia

This exceptional dive into Russian society is an exemplary demonstration that cultural anthropology has become crucial to capture the nuances, ambivalences, and the cocreational nature of the relationship between state and society in Russia. A must-read for those who want to comprehend Russia from the inside, and in war time. * Marlene Laruelle, author of Ideology and Meaning-Making under the Putin Regime * Morris offers a unique perspective on contemporary Russia, coming from a stranger who lives in the country and studies it without prejudice. If you are looking for a single account of life in wartime Russia, read Everyday Politics in Russia. It meticulously conveys a rich and sobering story of what happens when politics dies, yet a glimmer of the political remains. * Greg Yudin, Princeton University, USA * This ambitious book explores the forms of political life in contemporary Russia through a close anthropological gaze. Focusing on “ordinary people” deprived of political power and the capacity for collective organization, the book brilliantly demonstrates that their lives can be intensely political, even if this politics may be invisible to dominant theories and research methods … By showing that the political exists in forms and places that transcend not only state institutions and systems of hierarchical subordination, but also romanticized forms of resistance and “weapons of the weak,” this study expands the vocabulary of political anthropology. * Alexei Yurchak, author of Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation *