Sacred Sites

My first book project, Sacred Sites: Russian Orthodox Digital Media and Civilizational Anxiety reveals how Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) online media deploys a sophisticated form of Russian nationalism specifically targeting educated urban professionals. This often liberal-leaning demographic is crucial for the Putin regime’s maintenance of power. Combining digital media analysis, close reading, and ethnographic interviews, I argue that these outlets appropriate and reshape Russia’s cultural and literary past to promote a system of “correct reading” aligned with the Church's moral and political positions. By offering a holistic vision of Russian culture and history, the ROC provides an attractive political framework for audiences searching for stability and meaning amid contemporary global challenges that supports the current Russian regime rather than looking for democratic alternatives.

Sacred Sites is the first scholarly work dedicated to the specific ways the Russian Orthodox Church has used online media to present its vision of Russian culture and, ultimately, its agenda for Russian politics. Additional novelty comes from the book's periodization. My research began in 2016 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and continues to the present. The ROC has become a major supporter of Putin’s war, especially via propaganda. This research offers a recent historical view of how the Church's online media addressed Ukraine's politics, culture, and relationship with Russia. As a result, the book helps explain how Russia and the ROC have arrived at their current courses of action.