Closing of the Russian Mind

Andrei Kolesnikov is an award-winning journalist, author, and political analyst, writing from within Russia. He was previously a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He has won many journalistic awards, including the Russian Golden Quill (Zolotoye Pero Rossii) Award, the Adam Smith Prize, and the 2021 Yegor Gaidar Award for outstanding contribution to the study of history.

A Financial Times 'Best Summer Books of 2026: Politics'One of The Tablet's 'Books to Keep You in the Best Possible Company in 2026'"A brilliant account of Putinism"Gideon Rachman, Financial Times"A work of unusual density and range, combining intellectual history, political science, sociology and memoir. Its analytical vocabulary offers an arrestingly original framework for understanding the deep mechanisms of power in contemporary Russia."Owen Matthews, Times Literary Supplement"Drawing on his close observations of Russia's state and society and reinforcing his narrative with numerous quotes from Russian and Western liberal thinkers, Kolesnikov, a journalist, bitterly condemns Putin's militarized, repressive, and increasingly ideological regime."Foreign Affairs"This book is not only an intellectual tour de force but also a document of the epoch, a testimony written by Jonah from the belly of the Leviathan. Kolesnikov's analytic acumen and a keen sense of Russian culture and history go hand in hand with civil courage."Sergei Medvedev, Charles University, Prague, author of the Return of the Russian Leviathan and A War Made in Russia"Andrei Kolesnikov possesses the rare gift of telling the truth with clarity and insight. The Closing of the Russian Mind stands out as one of the few accounts of Putin's Russia destined to endure the test of time."Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia"An important and serious analysis of the hitherto underexamined ideological basis of the contemporary Russian state. It is an extremely rich and skilful work that gives a brilliant insight into the nature of Russian official propaganda."Andrei Zorin, University of Oxford"A brilliant study of the ideas and toxic myths that led Russia to invade Ukraine and launch the biggest war on the European continent since 1945. Andrei Kolenikov sets out in lucid and compelling style how Vladimir Putin thinks. The answer is disturbing. He believes Russia is an empire, human life is nothing and the West is an eternal enemy. The book is an important corrective to the deluded Trumpian view that Putin wants 'peace'."Luke Harding, author of Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Peterson Literary Prize"Writing with both trenchancy and humour, but above all with a fervent and much needed moral clarity, Kolesnikov examines the deep and ancient roots of [Putin's] ideology."The Tablet"Andrei Kolesnikov has written an intellectually stunning and very brave analysis of why Russia has become 'a country with no future'."Financial Times"Not only convincingly analyses the purely political explanations for this hatred, but also provides his poignant personal story."Expressen

• Preface: 'Kyiv was bombed...'Chapter One: Hybrid Totalitarianism: Interdependence of Regime and IdeologyChapter Two: Roots, Crown and Flags: The Evolution of the Russian IdeaChapter Three: The 'Special Path' of the 'State-Civilization'Chapter Four: History as a WeaponChapter Five: Ideology as a Tool of SuppressionChapter Six. Making Unfreedom SacredChapter Seven: A Country Without a Future: Is Russia’s Modernization Possible?AcknowledgementsIndexContents