The Devil You Know: Hunting for Satan in Putin's Russia

Who knew that, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, they would soon claim that they were fighting the forces of Satan? How did an imperialist land grab get translated into a struggle with the forces of darkness? The Soviet Union was spared the American Satanic Panic of the 1980s, but the years following the collapse of the USSR saw the rise of a frenzied rhetoric about Satanism through a combination of imported anxieties over “cults,” the resurgence of the Russian Orthodox Church, and heated opposition to “dangerous” cultural imports such as Harry Potter and Halloween. This talk traces the growing role of the discourse about Satan in Russian political and popular culture.

About the speaker

Eliot Borenstein is Professor of Russian & Slavic Studies and Vice Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Programs at New York University. His publications include Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism and Meanwhile, in Russia…: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video. His most recent book is The Politics of Fantasy: Magic, Children’s Literature and Fandom in Putin’s Russia.