Can political power effectively refashion cultural discourse in contemporaneity? What are the stakes of this process and how does it transform society? Is the term "civilisation" still vital and relevant in relation to the nation-state?

Over the past three and a half years, the contemporary Russian state has developed a worldview and a set of political practices that are both coherent and internally contradictory. Central to this worldview is the claim that Russia is a “state-civilisation” – not merely culturally distinct, but existentially incommensurable with other “civilisations.” This ideological vision reframes war, death, murder, and sacrifice as elements of "civilisational awakening" and growth.

In this talk, moderated by Denis Maksimov, Professor Alexei Yurchak, award-winning author of Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, will examine the phenomenon of “Putinism” and its social effects from this perspective.