Conspiratorial thought exerts a near-global attraction: the idea that events part of a larger plan (even an evil plan) can be comforting, but conspiracy holds a special place in Russian culture, both as an integral part of the country’s intellectual history and as one of the dominant modes of meaning-making in the post-socialist Russian Federation. This talk traces the development of conspiracy theories in late- and post-Soviet Russia, and argues that conspiracy has become the meta-language for Russian political and cultural discourse.

A talk by Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies. 

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