This book develops the idea of Russia as a country that can be defined, in identity terms, as displaying ‘hybrid exceptionalism’. In essence this relates to the ideological/ideational positioning of Russia that can be seen as analogous to its geographical and geo-political position between West and East. To oversimplify, the argument is that Russia defines itself as distinct from the West, at the same time as taking an Orientalist stance towards many of its Eastern and Southern neighbours. The author pinpoints a number of aspects of Russian identity formation —chiefly Russian Orthodoxy— that play an important role in such a positioning.weiterlesen