What Else Russia’s Ukraine War Reveals
Russia’s Ukraine war has already prompted many publications. But this book stands out as it doesn’t just cast light on the war itself or Russian-ukrainian relations, it locates Russia in a broader world historical context. Assessing Vladimir Putin’s Russia in relation to its reliance on fossil-fuel energy, climate (in)action, Covid-19 response, its public sphere, demography, gender issues and inequality, as well as the war, Alexander Etkind, a professor at the Central European University in Vienna, designates it a country against “gaiamodernity” — an environmentfriendly, climate-aware modern world in the making. He sees Putin’s aim as to restore the Soviet-style “paleomodernity” in which reign fossil fuel and steel, the majesty of military power and coerced unity of the people.
Defining Putin’s war not simply as a “special operation” against the Ukrainian people, their statehood and culture, but as a war against modernity, Etkind contends that it is only comprehensible by combining classic Russian imperialism with a specifically post-soviet revanchism. He also adds a third element, fetishism: A Ukrainian territory has value only from the idea that it used to be “ours” and should be regained, a fetishistic desire that would bring glory, ecstasy or some other form of satisfaction for Putin, his elite and their people. Recalling the fates of historical empires, Etkind predicts, not calls for, the defederation of the Russian Federation. The countries newly emerging then would be grateful to the country that defeated Russia in the war.