An interesting book on Russian identity

[A.Smith]

The Hammer, Sickle and Star -  Following the Idea of Russia

 

For many decades, communist ideology concealed the idea of Russia. After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian intellectuals, inheritors of the
traditions of the Russian intelligentsia, welcomed the reemergence of the
idea. They launched extensive and heated discussions about themes and
questions that have echoed across the years in Russian intellectual culture,
including “who are we,” “where are we now,” and “who is guilty?”

 

This book attempts to outline the main themes of this on-going interchange
of ideas. Although the concept of the Russian idea remains vague, the
discussion about it and related topics is sharp and fascinating. The author
has followed Russian newspapers, periodicals and other media for almost two
decades and has come to a firm but simultaneously paradoxical conclusion.
The result of this seemingly unproductive search by intellectuals for the
Ultimate Truth has had and will have an immense influence on the policy of
the Kremlin leadership and on attitudes in Russian society.

 

 

Antti Karppinen (b. 1923) spent his childhood in Helsinki and Riga. In 1940,
he was an eyewitness to the Soviet occupation of Latvia. Starting in 1955,
Karppinen served numerous times in Moscow and Leningrad. As Ambassador, he
served in Prague and Bonn. The author wrote a three volume work in Finnish
entitled “In search of the Russian Idea” (1999, 2003 and 2006 –  published
by WSOY).

 

 

Antti Karppinen: The Hammer, Sickle, and the Star. Following the Idea of
Russia

Kikimora Publications B 36

ISBN 952-10-3205-7

267 p. 30 €

 

Orders: kikimora-publications at helsinki.fi, tel. 09 1912 8660,
www.kikimora-publications.com.

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