“Cultures of History Forum”: The Pop-Cultural Lineage of Russia’s Anti-Fascist Discourse: Unravelling the Plot of Putins’s War on Ukraine
01. Jun 2022
Violeta Davoliūtė
While Putin’s plan to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been widely understood as irrational, it is entirely consistent with the “anti-fascist” discourse of his regime. Though it seems contrived to outsiders, this discourse resonates powerfully with both Russian troops in the theatre of war and among citizens at home. Rooted in Soviet culture, it draws on the political and cultural neo-traditionalism that crystalized in Soviet television serials in the 1970s, which vilified the West, defined a new Soviet war hero, and nurtured a cryptic fascination with Nazism. From this perspective, the invasion of Ukraine can be interpreted as a case of life imitating art: irrational from the perspective of national interest, but true to life in terms of plot.
Violeta Davoliūtė: The Pop-Cultural Lineage of Russia’s Anti-Fascist Discourse: Unravelling the Plot of Russia’s War on Ukraine. Cultures of History Forum (01.06.2022), DOI: 10.25626/0138.