After traveling through Russia in 1839, the French aristocrat Astolphe de Custine wrote a book that still shapes Western politicians’ views of the country. But beyond criticism of Russian customs, it also contains an unexpected political theory.

#19thcentury #AstolphedeCustine #bestseller #Decembrists #dissidents #europe #WestandEast #foreignersinRussia #historicalmemory #conservatism #finance #PyotrChaadaev #politicaltheory #Poland #rightandleft #revolution #reforms #RussianEmpire #France #civilization

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Sociologist Lev Gudkov has been studying public attitudes in Russia since the time of Perestroika. In the late 1980s, he worked at the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion, from which he left in the early 2000s along with Yuri Levada’s team. From 2006 to 2021, Gudkov headed the Levada Center—the largest independent organization conducting sociological surveys in Russia—and then became its scientific director. Both the Levada Center and Gudkov himself have been designated as foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Drawing on years of sociological surveys of post-Soviet society and the historical experience of countries that went through fascism in the 20th century, we spoke with the renowned researcher about the most likely scenario for Russia’s future.

#future #WarinUkraine #state #degradation #democracy #dictatorship #europe #lifeintheUSSR #west #interview #LevadaCenter #society #afterPutin #forecast #reforms #Russia #socialsphere #sociology #futurology #Economy

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