Russia Against Modernity by AlexanderEtkind.Cambridge: Polity, 2023. 176 pp. $64.95. ISBN 978‐1‐5095‐5657‐1

In this brief but striking book, Alexander Etkind makes a bold intervention on the nature of the Russian Federation and of the Russia-Ukraine war. Etkind uses this volume, which resembles an extended essay more than a monograph, to argue that the underlying cause of the clash between the Russian Federation and other states is less to do with territorial conquest, mystic nationalism, or sheer bloodthirstiness than with contrasting visions of modernity. Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation has, Etkind contends, become increasingly attached to “paleomodernity,” which has “defined progress in terms of the expanding use of nature: the more resources … used and the more energy consumed, the higher was a civilization” (p. 4). This is industrialized modernity: a “reign of oil, steel and smoke [and] the majesty of military power” (p. 11). Russia’s oil-funded and anti-climate change authoritarianism does not strive to recreate the culture of the former Soviet Union: it seeks to ape its industrialism. Gas and oil money—extracted with little trouble by a small number of corrupt cadres and sold to a willing consumer base abroad, Etkind notes—has propped up the Putin-era political elites for decades. This extractive economy has no need for the wider population’s labor, leaving the Russian public powerless and impoverished. No area of life has been left untouched by this deep corruption. Etkind charges through the corrupt and kleptocratic history of the Putin-era state, deftly traversing complex theoretical ground from the fields of political economy, cultural studies, and environmental history to explore his argument from different angles as he investigates the worlds of high politics, state propaganda, and genocide in Ukraine. The ease with which the author can cover both Freudian analysis and Critical Race Theory in a single, elucidating page is indicative of his dextrous borrowing from a range of disciplines (p. 113). The particular novelty of Etkind’s argument comes in positing that, not only is Russia trapped in a cycle that requires ever more fossil fuel extraction to support entrenched power structures, but that the world is drifting toward what he terms “gaiamodernity”: a contrasting pole to paleomodernity that is “reflexive, sustainable, decentralized [and] negotiated between the planet and its humans” (p. 4). If paleomodernity is driven by relentless consumption as a necessity and an aspiration, gaiamodernity seeks balance and reduction. Etkind assures the reader that “the further advancement of humanity requires less energy used,” and revels in presenting a vision of gaiamodernity’s inexorable victory over paleomodernity (p. 4). Indeed, Russia Against Modernity is at its very strongest when Etkind applies this central contention to the Ukraine war, arguing that the conflict is driven by the inevitable clash of paleomodernity and gaiamodernity as the former seeks to delay its own, inevitable demise. As the global transition to clean energy use speeds up, Etkind convincingly argues, the source of Russia’s fossil fuel income—and therefore the elites’ power—will dry up. The war in Ukraine is but one manifestation of a conflict that seems inevitable as “paleomodern” nations like Russia strive to upset the world’s move toward climate-friendly policies. Similarly convincing are the passages arguing that it was the Russian political elite who foisted the path of “paleomodernity” on the post-Soviet Russian Federation, eclipsing the need for the people’s labor or consent in the country’s political life. As debate rages around the Russian public’s participation in and enthusiasm for the war, Etkind makes a sound case that ordinary Russians should not be held responsible for the processes that led to the invasion of Ukraine. While I have made the opposing case in my own writing, Etkind’s conceptualization of temporal and political processes is persuasive and novel. Even the most antagonistic reader will find the work thought-provoking. Nonetheless, the work does suffer some limitations. Occasionally, Etkind veers into the realm of the hyperbolic, particularly in two overarching claims that dominate the book. First, the implicit claim that gaiamodernity’s victory is certain seems more hopeful than realistic, as even sympathetic governments struggle to tackle climate change on the required scale and continue consuming vast quantities of fossil fuels. Indeed, the reading of the world in such starkly binary terms as paleo/gaiamodernity at times leads to slightly bewildering contentions: can George Soros, that arch-capitalist investor, really be seen as an opposing pole to Russia’s rejection of modernity, as Etkind suggests (p. 69)? Second, Etkind’s closing chapter imagines a postwar, defeated Russia that has collapsed into distinct regional entities in a world where “people abroad had learned to live without oil” (p. 138). If it seems hard to imagine a post-oil world in anything but the most distant future, then it seems harder still to imagine that the Russian Federation would inevitably collapse as a nation-state as a result. At the time of writing in August 2023, there is little sign that Russia is about to suffer a catastrophic battlefield, let alone territorial, collapse. However, Etkind’s aim in this book is not to produce the definitive history of his paleo/gaimodernity concept. Thane Gustafson’s recent Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change (2021) and Etkind’s own Nature’s Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources (2021) are essential companion volumes for readers hoping to understand the nuance behind Russia Against Modernity. Nonetheless, this fiery text may spark an interdisciplinary discussion about the nature and causes of Russia’s militarism under Vladimir Putin.

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