Antti Karppinen : The hammer, sickle, and star

For many decades, communist ideology concealed the idea of Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian intellectuals, inheritors of the traditions of the Russian intelligentsia, welcomed the reemergence of the idea. They launched extensive and heated discussions about themes and questions that have echoed across the years in Russian intellectual culture, including "who are we," "where are we now," and "who is guilty?"

This book attempts to outline the main themes of this on-going interchange of ideas. Although the concept of the Russian idea remains vague, the discussion about it and related topics is sharp and fascinating. The author has followed Russian newspapers, periodicals and other media for almost two decades and has come to a firm but simultaneously paradoxical conclusion. The result of this seemingly unproductive search by intellectuals for the Ultimate Truth has had and will have an immense influence on the policy of the Kremlin leadership and on attitudes in Russian society.