Authors

Pål Kolstø¹;  ¹ University of Oslo, Norway

Discussion

Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia presents itself as a unique civilization with a 1000-year long history. The regime tries to inculcate this view in the population, including through the school system. While Russian educators could previously choose between different history textbooks, the choice has gradually been narrowed and, in September 2025, it was finally eliminated. Helge Blakkisrud explorers how this process evolved and shows how textbooks are being used as major tools of regime legitimation.
The past is meant to provide meaning to the present. Gulnaz Sharafutdinova argues that the repeated invocation of an exceptionalism narrative testifies to Russia’s inability to join the European path. This contributes to a national inferiority complex that expresses itself in resentment at the West for failing to recognize Russia as one of its own. The concept of ‘collective narcissism’ captures the psychological drivers of the exceptionalism narrative.
A major societal problem in Russia is a decreasing population. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has been placing increasing importance on the ‘demographic crisis’. The declining birth rates are a problem which Russia shares with most countries in the northern hemisphere, but as Jules-Sergei Fediunin argues, the Putin regime’s attempts to solve it differ from most other industrialized countries: it places greater emphasis on the moral component, i.e. the promotion of ‘traditional values.’
An important partner for the regime in this morality-focused drive to combat the demographic crisis is the Russian Orthodox Church. Drawing on Church documents, Orthodox media, and statements by clerical and lay actors, Bojidar Kolov and Pål Kolstø examine how ideas of faith, tradition, and national identity are mobilised to define legitimate forms of family, gender, and sexuality. They argue that within this discourse, fertility and parenthood are reimagined as spiritual virtues and patriotic duties.