Donald Rayfield
Philosophers & Murderers
Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia’s New Nationalism
By Charles Clover
Yale University Press 360pp £25
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West
By Luke Harding
Guardian Books and Faber & Faber 424pp £12.99
Charles Clover is an award-winning reporter, but he also writes like a conscientious academic. The first half of his book describes a century of Russian political philosophy, from Nikolai Danilevsky’s Russia and Europe of 1869 to Lev Gumilev’s ‘Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of Earth’ (1989), while the second half draws on recent memoirs and interviews with many of the main actors in contemporary Russian skulduggery (though not with Vladimir Putin). Both halves, even though they demand slow, careful reading, are thought-provoking. If there is a problem with the book, it is the difficulty of relating political actions (for instance, the crushing of Chechnya or the snatching of Georgian and Ukrainian territory) to the philosophical writings that appear to justify such deeds. Hitler may have read Nietzsche, and Stalin might have read Machiavelli and Marx, but it is very likely that they would have acted in the same way had they read nothing at all. Political philosophy allows acolytes and propagandists to justify a leader’s actions post hoc; it seldom inspires them.
The ideological basis for Russian nationalism, both new and old, is a rejection of North American and European principles of representation, rule of law and citizens’ rights. Danilevsky’s Russia and Europe, Clover shows, announced a new ‘Russian-Slavonic’ era to replace the ‘Germano Roman’ dominance of the world, declaring, ‘Europe is
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk