Russia is in fact the posterchild for full-blown authoritarian neoliberalism and in many respects the neoconservative and neo-traditionalist discourse emanating from the center is intended to distract and displace opposition within the country to the terrible life-chances of all but a tiny, privileged percentage of the population

—Jeremy Morris, „Russia’s Vanguard Authoritarian Neoliberal System“, in Backlash: The Global Rise of the Radical Right, (London: Pluto Press, 2026), 123.

„They“ really are „us“ – the feeling of familiarity I get in Russia can be disconcerting. It’s like looking at oneself through a sort of distorted mirror.

Red Threads Research Center Superstructure Manifesto:

In post-Soviet conditions, the production of knowledge detached from technocratic tasks is considered a dangerous excess. States are systematically weakening universities—the key institutions for the production of critical knowledge. They are underfunding the social sciences and humanities and imposing ideological obligations on them, designed to legitimize the authority of the ruling regime and the global capitalist order comprising a constellation of nation-states. Under such conditions, research free from pressure and censorship becomes increasingly impossible within university walls.

Leading capitalist countries create conditions under which researchers from peripheral countries—whether voluntarily or not—find themselves drawn into imperialist conflicts. By allowing a critique of colonialism within certain theoretical frameworks, (post-)empires directly or indirectly polish their reputations. Attention is thus shifted away from the key issue—the structural role of capitalism in the reproduction of imperialist relations. Often, this is not a subversion of imperialism, but a new attempt at normalization; not a critique of it, but a way to neutralize it.

A rough-hewn Smolensk Lenin stands satisfied and confident. Lenin is often depicted holding a document or his hat, or holding his coat against the wind. Here he seems to give a thumbs up, and while the wind does seem to catch his coat, his left hand is relaxed in a pocket.

Lenin at Oktyabrskaya is a commanding Lenin. He stands with feet planted firmly atop a column. Rather than on a plinth somewhat accessible to the viewer, here he is significantly above figures of the army below, who march resolutely forward, urged onward by the Motherland.

Venya’s starting point in Moscow-Petushki