Table of Contents

Part 1 Symbolic communication: the symbolic world of Russianness; symbol and myth; the mythic idea; culture as symbolic communication; self and other; sources and methods. Part 2 Territorial symbolism - the double-headed eagle: history in a nutshell; St. George; St. Andrew; split eagle; decoding the eagle; colour symbolism; territorial marking; territories and titles; the territorial imperative; expansion and colonization; return of the eagle. Part 3 Symbols of the centre: the wandering centre; Moscow - concentric structures; Petersburg - centre and periphery; modernism and polarization; the prestige of the centre; rival centres; Red Square; periphery as opposition. Part 4 The Tsar - father to the people: saintly princes; Tsar and God; the Monomakh crown; the pious ruler; hero and father; the era of empresses; foreign metaphor; Tsar and people; the last Tsar. Part 5 Orthodox Christianity - the collective spirit: the legend of choice; pagan heritage; Byzantine connections; unifying power; the third Rome; western influences; the schism; vehicles of meaning; icons - windows to heaven; the trinity; virgin of Vladimir; holy Russia; millennium; Christ the saviour. Part 6 Mother Russia - soil and soul: beloved motherland; feminine Russia; concentrated martiarchy; sacrifice; hills of heroes; womanhood and nationhood; soil and soul; the face of Russia. Part 7 Ethnic symbolism - real Russianness?: folk tradition; the mythic and the aesthetic; folk dress; heaven and earth; national food; ritual food; food as fantasy; bread and salt; protected space; Easter eggs; kissing customs; the history of vodka; drinking habits; drinking tea; ethnicity and nationality. Part 8 Russian stereotypes: national character; "Russkii Narod"; collective body; what's in a name?; we and others; purity of the nation; language and ethnicity; Russian time and space; money and wealth; utopian worlds. Part 9 Creation of the nation - a symbolic discourse: the Russian idea; creation of history; protective formula; the Slavophile utopia; the Russian home; narrating the nation; the "Narod" in collections; museum and Empire; the intelligentsia; national culture; Pushkin and Co.; whose project?; the Eurasian temptation. Part 10 Understanding Russianness: ambivalent space; the nesting principle; enigmatic Russia; current discourse; cultural archaeology; national regeneration; parts and wholes; understanding?.