Ivan Gololobov

Regional Ideologies in Russia: in Search of a Post-soviet Identity Ivan Gololobov

This book dwells into the construction of newregional identities in post-Soviet Russia. Broughtinto being by a particular ideological practice, theyconstitute a particular response to the situation ofsocial dis-identification generated by thedissolution of the USSR and the disappearance of thecommunity of the 'Soviet people'. The study focuseson two such concrete 'solutions', namely theideological projects of the Kubanian Governor NikolayKondratenko and of the Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov. Drawing on the 'new theories of discourse', theresearch examines articulations of particular ideasof 'Moscow' and 'Kuban'', fixing the identities of'Muscovites' and 'Kubanians' in the politicaldiscourse of the 1990s. The book investigates the new'regionalities' with relations to the legal andadministrative privileging of the 'subject' of theregional population. The study also looks into thehegemonic potential of the regional ideologies, theirrelevance to a wider programmes of socialidentification, and their subsequent history.