An unorthodox portrait of modern-day Russia, including its paradoxes, practices, and patterns.

Russian Pendulum takes readers on a compelling journey through Russia in which tradition, modernity, power, and informality collide. Linking local knowledge and insider expertise with global trends and international perspectives, the book reveals the patterns that have defined Russia’s destiny for centuries. At its core lies an intricate system of informal networks that are held together by cooptation, control, and camouflage practices.

Alena Ledeneva is professor of politics and society at University College London and a founder of the Global Informality Project (in-formality.com). She authored the trilogy on Russia: Russia's Economy of Favours, How Russia Really Works, and Can Russia Modernize?, and edited the first three volumes of The Global Encyclopedia of Informality.

List of illustrations
List of figures and tables
Preface
Acknowledgements

The prism of ambivalence: introduction to paradoxes, practices and patterns
1 Russians outside Russia: particles or waves
2 Russia and the West: not apart, not together
3 Zigzag modernisation: two steps forward, one step back
4 What works when democracy doesn’t? Triangulation
5 From Moscow to Russia, from Russia to Moscow: the double pendulum
6 Is Russia a ‘normal’ economy? The cascades of redistribution
7 Russia’s entrepreneurs: on a tightrope
8 The system paradox: the ambivalence of power
9 Conclusion: circles, cycles, waves and tides

Appendix 1 Index