Rebel Russia
Dissent and Protest from the Tsars to Navalny

Anna Arutunyan (Author)

9781509552290, Polity Press

Hardback, published 30 May 2025

224 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.454 kg

"An engagingly written and deeply personal book that takes readers on a fascinating journey into dissent and protest over some 500 years of Russian history."
Graeme Gill, Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney

“Thoughtful if unsettling insights into political opposition in Russia.”
Kirkus Reviews

"The real reason why Russians won’t rise up against Putin"
Edward Lucas, The Times

Navalny. Lenin. Pugachev. The Russian rebel – in his epic battle against the Leviathan of the Russian state – has enthralled readers and writers for decades. The rebel's story is almost always a sad one that ends in exile, imprisonment, or martyrdom, leaving but a seed for the future reform of the Leviathan which he or she had taken on.

Why do revolts – from the Decembrist uprising to the Snow Revolution that brought Alexei Navalny to the forefront of contemporary Russian politics – seem to end up failing or producing an even worse form of despotism? In reality, the brave words and deeds of dissidents have shaped the course of Russian history more often than we might think. Through the stories of prominent rebels from the time of Ivan the Terrible to the present day, as well as her own experiences reporting on her country’s decent into authoritarianism, Russian-American journalist Anna Arutunyan explores how the rebel and the Tsar defined each other through a centuries-long dance of dissent and repression. These characters and their lives not only reveal the true nature of the Russian state, they also offer hope for a future Russian democracy.

Also available as an audiobook.

Contents

Preface

1.   The Optimists
2.   The Traitor and the Tsar
3.   The Rebel and the Tsar
4.   The Revolt of the Elites
5.   The Will of the People
6.   The Rebel as Tsar
7.   The Dissidents
8.   The Democrats
9.   The Russian Spring
10.  The Russian Winter

Notes

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP]