Soviet Self‐Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia by EliotBorenstein. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023. 204 pp. $22.95. ISBN 978‐1‐5017‐6988‐7
Journal: The Russian Review
Year: 2024

Self-Hatred is in certain ways a continuation of his Plots against Russia (2019), which focused on the dynamics and distinctive traits of conspiracy theories observed in post-Soviet Russian discourses.However, while both works address the role of a perceived external alienating gaze in collective identity construction, his earlier emphasis on conspiracy shifts here to imagined group identities.Moreover, events since Plots appeared-especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine-have produced a fresh con