the new russian nationalismAs Liah Greenfeld (1993) has shown, nationalism and capitalism
evolved in tandem in early modern Europe: not by coincidence
did Adam Smith title his famous work defining the essence of
capitalism The Wealth of Nations. It was published the same
year – 1776 – that saw the birth of political nationalism, with the
signing of the US Declaration of Independence.
This chapter seeks to close the gap between economic and
political analysis by examining the ways in which economic
considerations have shaped the national identity discourse in
Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The period falls
fairly neatly into two phases – the 1990s under Boris Eltsin,
characterised by institutional turmoil and economic decline; and
the 2000s under Vladimir Putin, characterised by institutional
stability and steady growth. We are now entering a third phase
whose contours are still unclear. Since the 2008 crash, Russia’s
economy has struggled to regain the equilibrium of the 2000–8
period, and the crisis over Ukraine and Western sanctions may
be tipping the Putin model into a new autarkic paradigm,
with unknown consequences for the stability of Putin’s political
regime.
At the level of mass politics, economics impacts national iden-
tity in a variety of ways – from the embrace or rejection of
Western consumer products, to the impact on living standards
of the sanctions introduced after the annexation of Crimea. The
most important single vector for the impact of economics on
public opinion is the presence of immigrants and migrant workers
from the former Soviet Union, which has stimulated a xenopho-
bic reaction from sections of the Russian population. However,
this chapter will focus on the debates among policy elites about
the place of economics in Russian national identity. The political
impact of migration is covered extensively by other authors in this
volume.
The role of the nation state in the era of globalisation
Globalisation – understood as the intensification of cross- border
flows of goods, people, money and ideas – took off in the 1990s.
Increased international trade and investment brings a country