In Russia Against Modernity, Alexander Etkind examines Russia's historical and cultural resistance to modernization and its rejection of key principles of modernity. He juxtaposes traditional notions of modern statehood—rooted in industrialization and high consumption—with the emerging global order that values climate awareness, energy transition, and digital labor. According to Etkind, Russia's invasion of Ukraine reflects not only an attempt to restore the Soviet Union's grandeur but also a defiant rejection of this new global modernity.

For Russia, modernity often appears as an external, Western-driven imposition, which it has rejected or selectively adapted in favor of autocracy, centralized power, and a distinct cultural and geopolitical identity. Etkind argues that this resistance to modernity, manifested in authoritarian governance, suppression of civil liberties, and reliance on fossil fuel exports, creates deep internal contradictions. These contradictions, in turn, lead to recurring crises that undermine Russia's aspirations for power and stability, a phenomenon Etkind frames through the concept of nemesis.

Drawing on the classical Greek idea of nemesis as retribution or inevitable downfall, Etkind portrays Russia's cyclical struggles as self-destructive outcomes of its defiance of modernizing principles. Putin's decision to invade Ukraine is a contemporary example of this dynamic. The invasion, aimed at reclaiming historical prestige and opposing the global shift toward modernity, has instead exacerbated Russia's political, cultural, and economic decline. Etkind notes several consequences of the war that have worked against Russia's objectives. Finland and Sweden, once neutral, have joined NATO, significantly expanding the alliance's presence near Russia's borders. In Ukraine, Russian-speaking populations have abandoned their native tongue in favor of Ukrainian, further cementing the nation's cultural independence. Globally, Russian culture and influence have reached unprecedented levels of unpopularity, leaving Russia increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Ultimately, Putin's actions have achieved the opposite of what he intended: instead of restoring Russian greatness, the invasion of Ukraine has deepened its decline. Etkind's work positions this failure as a broader pattern within Russian history, where attempts to resist or redefine modernity often bring about internal and external crises.

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hosted by Professor Eugene Finkel


RUSSIA AGAINST MODERNITY

Putin's war is a "special operation" against modernity. The invasion has been directed against Ukraine, but the war has a broader target: the modern world of climate awareness, energy transition and digital labor. By trading oil and gas, promoting Trump and Brexit, spreading corruption, boosting inequality and homophobia, subsidizing far-right movements and destroying Ukraine, Putin's clique aims at suppressing the ongoing transformation of modern societies. Alexander Etkind distinguishes between Russia's pompous, weaponized paleomodernity, on the one hand, and the lean, decentralized gaiamodernity of the Anthropocene, on the other. Putin's clique has used various strategies – from climate denialism and electoral interference to war and genocide – to resist and subvert modernity. Working on political, cultural and even demographic levels, social mechanisms convert the vicious energy of the oil curse into all-out aggression. Dissecting these mechanisms, Etkind's brief but rigorous analyses of social structuration, cultural dynamics and family models reveal the agency that drives the Russian war against modernity. This short, sharp critique of the Russian regime combines political economy, social history and demography to predict the decolonizing and defederating of Russia.

ALEXANDER ETKIND

Alexander Etkind is Professor of History at the Central European University, in Vienna. He previously taught at the European University Institute at Florence (2013-2022), the University of Cambridge (2004-2013), and the European University at St Petersburg (1999-2004). Etkind defended his PhD in Russian cultural history in Helsinki (1998), and supervised more than 30 PhD students in Europe. His current interests are the political aspects of the Anthropocene, global decarbonization and security in Eastern Europe. In the past, he was also involved in memory studies, European intellectual history, empires and decolonization, and various aspects of Russian history. A Fellow of King's College Cambridge, Etkind was the Leader of Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine, a European research project (2010-13). He is the author of Eros of the Impossible: the History of Psychoanalysis in Russia (Westview Press 1996); Internal Colonization: Russia's Imperial Experience (Polity Press 2011); Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied (Stanford University Press 2013); Roads not Taken: an Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt (Pittsburgh University Press 2017); and Nature's Evil: a Cultural History of Natural Resources (Polity Press 2021). Etkind co-edited Remembering Katyn (Polity 2012), Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (Palgrave 2013) and Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia (Routledge 2017). His most recent book, Russia against Modernity, was released by Polity in 2023. Since 2024, Etkind has been the Head of the Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene at CEU.