Russia on the Edge

Abstract

Edith Clowes' Russia on the Edge is an engaging and accessible examination of three central questions of post-Soviet Russia: What is Russia? Who are the Russians? Where is Russia? The last question might be odd, given that the physical borders of the Russian Federation are not in doubt, since they are the same as those of the Russian republic borders from the Soviet period. However, when it comes to the creation of a post-Soviet Russian identity, the physical borders are secondary to how they are imagined. As stated in the preface: if Soviet identity was defined largely in terms of "time"-"linked to a vision of the Soviet state at the vanguard of history"the post-Soviet debate over Russian identity "has been couched in spatial metaphors of territory and geography" (xi). Thus, "[the] geographical metaphors dominant in current discourse about identity convey the sense that who a Russian is depends on how one defines where Russia is" (xii). As such, the three questions of What? Who? * Thomas Ambrosio is an associate professor of political science and director of international studies at North Dakota State University. He has published numerous articles, books, and edited volumes in the past decade, including, most recently, two articles: "Unfreezing the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict? Evaluating Peacemaking Efforts Under the Obama Administration" in Ethnopolitics and "Constructing a Framework of Authoritarian" in International Studies Perspectives. He is currently conducting research on the political rhetoric of Russian Presidents Putin and Medvedev, as well as perceptions of China as an alternative governing structure.

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“…In post-Soviet Russia, spatial metaphors of territory and geographical space have been central to ideas of Russian identity. 2 Writers and their literary imagination have had a great influence on public opinion in the literature-centric Russia. The connections between geography and Russian culture have been the object of many scholarly works, varying from depictions of the Caucasus in nineteenth-century literature to early Soviet films' visions of new lands.…”