Project information
Return of Totalitarianism? Putin´s Regime in the Time of War

The impetus for embarking on this project was the argument that Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine (since February 2022) could have an effect on the nature of Vladimir Putin’s political regime. At the same time, the language used to describe the practical and symbolic manifestations of Putin’s regime increasingly employs vocabulary typical of totalitarian regimes of the 20th century (mobilisation, common enemy, war, etc.). The challenge of analysing the type of regime in contemporary Russia was thus connected with an examination of whether the concept of totalitarianism is still applicable in research on contemporary non-democratic regimes. The project thus combines two research fields: contemporary Russian studies and the theory of non-democratic regimes.