The Russian protests, aroused by the 2011 Duma election, have been widely portrayed as a colourful but inconsequential middle-class rebellion, confined to Moscow and organised by an unpopular opposition.
In this sweeping new account of the protests, the sociologist and historian Mischa Gabowitsch challenges these journalistic cliches. Discussing protests across Russia and abroad, he analyses the biggest wave of demonstrations since the end of the Soviet Union. He shows that explanatory frameworks referring to 'the rise of an anti-Putin middle-class' or 'the struggle between the opposition and the regime' stem from wishful thinking and media bias rather than from accurate empirical analysis.
Drawing on numerous interviews, an original database of protest events, photos and slogans, as well as a wide range of data assembled by research teams in different parts of Russia, Gabowitsch places the wave of mobilisation in the context of protest and social movements in Russia as a whole, particularly outside Moscow and St Petersburg. He also deals with artistic protesters such as Pussy Riot, and analyses demonstrators' use of media and social networks. Shifting the perspective from opposition movements to individual protesters and their experiences at the demonstrations and protest camps, he argues that what was known in Russia as 'the movement for fair elections' has had important effects that have been obscured by the apparent success of the state's countermeasures.
The book also discusses these carrot-and-stick responses, as well as the legacy of the protests in the new era after Ukraine's much larger Maidan protests, the crises in Crimea and the Donbass, and Putin's ultra-conservative turn. The first book-length study of the Russian protests to have appeared in any language, this English edition has been thoroughly revised and updated by the author.
By:
Mischa Gabowitsch
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 224mm,
Width: 150mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9780745696263
ISBN 10: 0745696260
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 25 November 2016
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1. Introduction: March of Millions Chapter 2. PutinAs Regimes Chapter 3. Insurgent Observers Chapter 4. Scenes and Solidarities: Opposition and Grassroots Protest Before 2011-13 Chapter 5. Crossed Purposes: Opposition and Grassroots Protestors in the 2011-13 Protest Wave Chapter 6. Pussy Riot and Beyond: Art, Religion and Gender Regimes in Russian Protest Chapter 7. Cognitive Spaces of Protest Chapter 8. The Transnational Dimension Chapter 9. Conclusion: Protest in PutinAs third term
Reviews for Protest in Putin's Russia
""Benefiting from his exceptional cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary background, Gabowitsch looks at the Russian polity from below. Highly informed by personal observations, interviews and a systematic database of protest events, the book offers a completely new view of the promise and challenges of protest in the context of the authoritarian temptation that has come back to haunt the entire European continent."" Laurent Thévenot, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris ""This book sheds new light on the forces and conditions that have shaped the anti-Putin protests in Moscow and elsewhere, examining in unprecedented detail the events, personalities and ideas that have changed Russian and global politics in recent years. There is little doubt that mass protests will occur in Russia again, though in new and unpredictable forms. This book helps us understand their fateful crescendos."" Alexander Etkind, European University Institute, Florence, author of Internal Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience ""Gabowitsch’s seminal study is of interest to the specialist as well as the general reader. It is a meticulously researched volume that throws light on the diverse protests that swept Russia in the wake of the 2011 Duma election. While they failed to prevent Putin's return to the presidency, the protests may well have heralded potentially momentous social change."" Josephine von Zitzewitz, University of Cambridge ""Protest in Putin’s Russia combines stirring reportage with conceptual sophistication, taking readers into sites of protest not only in Moscow but in cities across Russia."" The New York Review of Books ""...an extremely important and rare contribution to the scholarship on social movements and political mobilisation in Russia and around the world"" Europe-Asia Studies
