Mythmaking in the New Russia

After the collapse of Communist rule in 1991, those loyal to the old regime tried to salvage their political dreams by rejecting some aspects of their history and embracing others. Yeltsin and the democrats, although initially hesitant to rely on the...

Kathleen E. Smith is Adjunct Professor of Government at Georgetown University. She is author of Remembering Stalin's Victims: Popular Memory and the End of the USSR, also from Cornell.

This is a novel and welcome contribution to the social science literature on post-Soviet Russia. Rather than offering the traditional focus on institutions and political elites, Smith focuses on the pivotal events of Russia's bumpy transition to democracy and the ways in which two key groups—Yeltsin's 'democrats' and the opposition 'red-brown' coalition—framed these events to their advantage.... This book is recommended for general readers and scholars familiar with Russia.

George O. Liber, University of Alabama at Birmingham:

One of the best assessments of the Russian political situation at the end of the twentieth century, Smith's book demonstrates the author's talents as an insightful and shrewd analyst, able to integrate contemporary cultural history and Russian domestic politics. Without simplifying complex, often conflicting crosscurrents, she has produced a well-written, jargonless, and well-argued book, which all instructors of Russian and post-Soviet politics courses should seriously consider adopting.

Catherine Merridale, University of Bristol, UK:

For now, we have an excellent survey of the politics of memory in the 1990s that will appeal to professionals and students alike.

Robert Legvold:

Collective memory can be the stuff of politics. In the battle to shape it, Smith argues, Russia's liberals have been dilatory and ineffective.... Smith's message in this interesting cut at the quest of Russian elites to find and exploit national identity does not suggest that the conservatives have gotten their way.

Michael G. Smith, Purdue University:

An illuminating story of citizens and politicians attempting to redefine themselves against a backdrop of seventy-four years of an increasingly bankrupt Soviet system.... This book provides an essential perspective on the culture wars of Russia's transition to democracy.

John Bushnell, Northwestern University:

With her careful recounting of the post-Soviet conflicts over symbols, commemorations, and historical interpretation, Kathleen E. Smith not only illuminates the celebration of centralist statism and the utter marginalization of political liberalism, she demonstrates convincingly that symbols were themselves the stuff of politics.

Professor Nina Tumarkin, author, The Living and the Dead: The Rise and Fall of the Cult of World War II in Russia:

Powerful, probing and profound, this remarkable book draws us into the world of contemporary Russian symbols and myths. Smith's keen analysis brings new and vibrant meaning to key moments and issues in the tumultuous decade following the collapse of the USSR.

Michael Urban, University of California Santa Cruz:

Kathleen Smith's Mythmaking in the New Russia: Politics and Memory during the Yeltsin Era is an engagingly imaginative work full of both sound interpretations and incisive analysis.

Blair Ruble, Director, Woodrow Wilson Center:

Kathleen E. Smith's book fills a gaping hole in the growing literature on the new Russia of the 1990s. Smith casts light on the decade's central question: Who do the Russians think they are? As readers of Mythmaking in the New Russia will immediately understand, Russians individually and collectively have yet to agree on an appropriate answer to this deceptively simple question. Smith reveals why Russia's future is so uncertain: identity matters.