Performing Political Opposition in Russia

Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Moscow and St. Petersburg among the political opposition’s youth group Oborona (Defence), this ground-breaking work brings forward a multifaceted and colourful image of the life of political opposition activists in a restricted political environment. The book illustrates how Soviet continuities and liberal ideas are entangled in Russian political activism to create new post-socialist political identities and practices, and questions the idea that Russian democratization is tied to its totalitarian past, and is heading towards a Western type of liberal democracy as its goal.