Free Download Unlearning the Soviet Tongue : Discursive Practices of a Democratizing Polity By Natalia Kovalyova
2014 | 247 Pages | ISBN: 0739191934 |
EPUB | 1 MB
How do countries democratize? What route does the way out of totalitarianism take? Students of Russian
politics have pursued answers to these questions by surveying Russians on a variety of attitudes, beliefs, norms, and practices. This book attends to
political discourse to demonstrate how it creates and constraints political opportunities. It examines an important period of Russian political
history: from Boris Yeltsin's second presidential election in 1996, when
democracy was pronounced victorious, through its gradual slide toward authoritarian practices during Vladimir Putin's initial two terms in office, and to the election of his protégé Dmitry Medvedev in 2008. This analysis
challenges the assertions of Russian democracy as doomed by the governing rationalities of the elites. Likewise, it refutes the notion of Russians as an apathetic nation in chronic need of a "strong hand." It argues that if we are to understand how Russia
lives, how it endures, and how it can
change, we need to pay attention to the discourses that shape Russian political identities and the nation's political future.
