Zoom Event: Sergei Medvedev in Conversation With Richard Wright

Join Pushkin House for an evening with Sergei Medvedev whose book ‘The Return of the Russian Leviathan’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Sergei will be in conversation with Richard Wright, one of the 2020 Prize judges.

Russia’s relationship with its neighbours and with the West has worsened dramatically in recent years. Under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, the country has annexed Crimea, begun a war in Eastern Ukraine, used chemical weapons on the streets of the UK and created an army of Internet trolls to meddle in the US presidential elections. How should we understand this apparent relapse into aggressive imperialism and militarism?

In this book, Sergei Medvedev argues that this new wave of Russian nationalism is the result of mentalities that have long been embedded within the Russian psyche. Whereas in the West, the turbulent social changes of the 1960s and a rising awareness of the legacy of colonialism have modernized attitudes, Russia has been stymied by an enduring sense of superiority over its neighbours alongside a painful nostalgia for empire. It is this infantilized and irrational worldview that Putin and others have exploited, as seen most clearly in Russia’s recent foreign policy decisions, including the annexation of Crimea.
The Return of the Russian Leviathan is published by Wiley in the US and Polity in the UK and was translated into English by Stephen Dalziel.

Event in English will take place on 23rd June.
Event in Russian take place on 8th July.