Further Reading

The most direct answer to the central question of this session. McGlynn, a researcher at King's College London's War Studies department, examines why ordinary Russians support the invasion — not as passive recipients of propaganda, but as active participants in a national narrative. Her argument: this is Russia's war, not only Putin's. Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Prize.

Companion volume to Russia's War, examining how the Kremlin rebuilt a mythical past — through school curricula, television, war memorials, and everyday cultural life — to create the conditions for societal support of imperial violence. Shows that propaganda works not by persuading, but by creating a reality in which the war makes internal sense.

A journalist's account of working inside Russia's media machine. Pomerantsev — son of Ukrainian dissidents — shows how Russian television manufactures reality not through crude lies but through the strategic blurring of fact, fiction, and performance. The definitive account of how Russian soft power operates from the inside.

Pomerantsev traces how Russia's information tactics were exported globally. The goal of modern propaganda, he shows, is not to convince but to disorient — to make truth itself feel unstable. Directly relevant to understanding why Western audiences struggle to identify and resist Russian cultural messaging.

The essential history of Ukraine as a distinct civilisation — not a subset of Russian history. Harvard historian Plokhy traces Ukraine from ancient Scythian cultures through Kyivan Rus, the Cossack era, Soviet rule, and independence. The clearest factual rebuttal to the claim that Ukrainian identity is a regional variant of Russian culture.

Plokhy places the 2022 invasion in the full sweep of Russian imperial history, arguing this is not an aberration but a continuation of Russian expansionism that predates Putin by centuries. Decisive in debunking the idea that removing Putin would resolve the structural problem.

Ukrainian novelist and philosopher Zabuzhko writes from the inside about Ukrainian cultural identity — what it means to exist as a nation whose literature, language, and history were systematically suppressed. Her essays on the roots of Russian imperialism in Muscovite ideology are among the most precise formulations available in English.

Scholarly examination of the institutional infrastructure through which Russia conducts cultural influence operations — the organisations, funding mechanisms, and strategic goals behind what this session calls 'culturewashing'. Directly documents the state-level apparatus behind the examples in the briefing handout.

Pomerantsev examines what effective counter-narrative looks like — drawing on Sefton Delmer, a British propagandist who successfully undermined Nazi information operations in WWII. Shifts the question from 'how does this work?' to 'what do we do about it?' — the transition from understanding to action.

Documents the long history of Russian attempts to shape Western opinion through cultural, academic, and journalistic channels — showing that contemporary culturewashing is a refinement of Soviet methods, not a post-2022 invention.

Survey of 1,060 Russian POWs held in Ukraine under international law. 68% considered the war legitimate and justified; 43% rated Ukrainians as less than fully human; nearly a third want to return and fight. The most important single data point in this debate — verifiable, peer-reviewed, and devastating to the 'they don't know the truth' argument.

Documents how Russia places 'information alibis' — propaganda planted before planned atrocities to pre-emptively assign blame to victims. Shows the deliberate coordination between cultural messaging and military violence.

Policy paper documenting Russia's soft power strategy — the specific audiences targeted, the channels used, and the goals behind cultural projection. Pre-war analysis that reads as a precise prediction of what has since unfolded across European cultural institutions.

Examines how Russia used cultural diplomacy, language policy, and historical narratives to maintain influence over Ukraine before 2022. Essential background for understanding why cultural engagement is not a neutral act — and never was.