Russian racial logic : examining white nationalism and narratives of race in Russia

This thesis uses qualitative content and historical analysis to understand the narratives of race and racism in the Russian Federation. It analyzes the history of race as a concept and the racialization of collective identities to challenge a common Russian trope that “there is no racism in Russia.” It reveals that Russia has a history of racism that it actively supports within its own society, but that this racism is cloaked behind nationalist rhetoric and does not use the terminology commonly administered to describe global racisms. As a result, white nationalist organizations that openly advocate for the superiority of the Russian ethnicity over others and commit violence against minorities are able to publicly do so without earning the label of “racist”