The invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022 sent shockwaves around the world. Putin took lives, homes and shattered hopes for peace. But how did this affect Russian scholarship and society? This urgent volume provides a unique insight into Russia's current intellectual and societal crisis, written by a team of authors representing the Independent Institute of Philosophy (IPHI), an organisation founded by and made up of Russian scholars who left the country in dissent in 2022.

Divided into 2 parts, Part I investigates the effect the war has had on intellectual life in Russia today. Protests, the suspension of collaborative projects, dismissals and the emigration of many colleagues have split the academic community. With expertise spanning across the social sciences, authors explore topics ranging from the silencing of political theorists to the political instrumentalization of biotechnology. Broadening the focus, Part II then extends the analysis to wider societal changes in Russia. With strikingly parallel themes of limited autonomy and politicization, chapters examine the entanglement of the Orthodox Church with state power, the weaponization of social media algorithms targeting young people and literature's role in advocating the myth of the Russian world.

Bringing together émigrés from a vast array of fields across philosophy, politics, religion, communication studies and more, this book not only documents the societal shifts in Russia but also offers critical tools to understand their long-term implications. Russian Society and the Ukraine War is a must-read for anyone interested in the continuing impact of the Kremlin's politics and, moreover, what it teaches us about the effects of totalitarianism on academic and social freedoms.

Yulia Sineokaya is former Professor of Philosophy and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, where she was a researcher for 30 years. She is an associate member of the Europes-Eurasia Research Centre (CREE) at INALCO in Paris, France.

Alexey Zhavoronkov is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. His academic interests focus on the history of philosophy and political thought.