Michael Gorham, Professor of Russian Studies, University of Florida, and author of Speaking in Soviet Tongues:
Plots against Russia, written with Eliot Borenstein's characteristic flair, leads readers through an astounding maze of plots, paranoia, and apocalypse that sheds light on the timely topic of 'conspirology' and its links to issues of national identity and popular culture.
Mark Lipovetsky, Professor of German and Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Colorado, Boulder:
Plots against Russia is excellent. Eliot Borenstein has written a playful, witty, and invariably elegant book that makes complex theoretical concepts easily digestible and gives necessary retellings of crazy fantasies that are simply hilarious.
Eliot Borenstein has contributed a rich and insightful study of conspiratorial narra-tives in Russian films, media, and fiction to the growing scholarly field of post-Soviet conspiracy theory[...]describing how these narratives function to construct conceptions of Russia's state-hood, identity, and destiny.Borenstein also provides a sophisticated, critical, and productive discussion and further development of theo-ries on conspiratorial thinking that could be applied to conspiracy narratives outside of Russia. It makes for an insightful and often entertaining read.
Brilliantly written and captivating, sometimes very funny as well as academically well-grounded, Borenstein's monograph provides an in-depth analysis of Russian contemporary conspiratorial culture. It will undoubtedly be useful for scholars dealing with post-Soviet Russia within disciplines such as cultural, literary and media studies, and should not be overlooked by historians, political scientists and sociologists, as the phenomena it describes are crucial for better understanding the political landscape of present-day Russia.
Written with irony and wit, Eliot Borenstein's Plots Against Russia analyzes Russian national myths and disturbingly popular beliefs in the internet age. Borenstein's tour of the darker side of Russian internet, popular fiction, television, and movies, where conspiracy theories flourish with baroque profusion, opens a window onto the engaging and terrifying landscape of contemporary Russian fantasy.
A study that both answers a number of questions about the post-Soviet Russian public sphere and signals other possible ways to interrogate its workings. As such, it should be read by all specialists in contemporary Russian culture.... Borenstein's text is so well written and entertaining that it will easily hold the attention of undergraduate students of post-Soviet Russian culture, history, and politics.
He offers close readings of how conspiracy manifests itself in Russian popular as well as political culture. In doing so, he pushes our understanding of how conspiracy has transcended the paranoid fringe and become widely accepted as credible.
A fascinating book written with self-awareness and humility, which only lends greater credibility to his arguments overall.
