Livers Keith A. Conspiracy Culture: Post-Soviet Paranoia and the Russian Imagination

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. — 320 p. — ISBN-10: 1487507372; ISBN-13: 978-1487507374.Contemporary Russia stands apart as one of the most prolific generators of conspiracy theories and paranoid rhetoric. Conspiracy Culture traces the roots of the phenomenon within the sphere of culture and history, examining the long arc of Russian paranoia from the present moment back to earlier nineteenth-century sources, such as Dostoevsky’s anti-nihilist novel Demons. Conspiracy Culture examines the use of conspiracy tropes by contemporary Russian authors and filmmakers including the postmodernist writer Viktor Pelevin, the conservative author and pundit Aleksandr Prokhanov, and the popular director Timur Bekmambetov. It also explores paranoia as an instrument within contemporary Russian political rhetoric, as well as in pseudo-historical works. What stands out is the manner in which popular paranoia is utilized to express broadly shared fears not only of a long-standing anti-Russian conspiracy undertaken by the West, but also about the destruction of the country’s cultural and spiritual capital within this imagined "Russophobic" plot.Introduction: The Anti-Russian ConspiracyFrom Vampire Capitalism to Enlightened Selfhood: Viktor Pelevin’s (Anti)-Conspiracy Novels
The Great Anti-Russian Plot: Aleksandr Prokhanov’s Conspiracy Novels of the 2000s
Timur Bekmambetov’s Night and Day Watch: Russia’s Secret Others
From the “Dulles Plan” to Pussy Riot: Conspiracy Theories in Today’s RussiaConclusion: Mr. Putin and Comrade Trump