The extreme nationalism seen in Russia today, with its strong Anti-West, Anti-market sentiments, did not arise overnight. Instead, Brudny argues that the beginning of this rise in nationalism can be traced back to the 1950s. Currently, there are two major approaches to interpreting the rise of nationalism: the primordial and instrumentalist approaches. The primordial approach argues that nationalism had always existed and was inevitable, but was suppressed during the communist years. The rise of democracy allowed for the expression of these nationalist feelings. Yet, this approach does not explain why some movements were more successful than others. The instrumentalist approach does not believe that the rise of nationalism is inevitable; instead, …show more content…
The approach Brudny takes allows for a deeper understanding of the workings of the Russian elites in their search for political legitimacy during the Soviet years and how that has affected the present. History is very much interconnected, with the echoes of the past affecting so much of today’s events. Brudny does a good job of illustrating the different types of nationalism that existed through the years and how the elites, with the help of the intellectuals, pushed a certain kind of nationalism in a bid for legitimacy. Brudny spends several chapters discussing the politics of inclusion, which he argues is what transformed the Russian nationalist intellectuals into a major force in the intelligentsia (Brudny 19). After the end of the reign of terror, intellectuals rose as a force within the Khrushchev regime, writing thick journals (a type of periodical) criticizing the reforms carried out by the government. Many of the reforms that angered them involved agriculture and how Khrushchev was