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Chronicles in Stone: Preservation, Patriotism, and Identity in Northwest Russia. By Victoria Donovan. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2019. xvi, 231 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. Figures. Maps. $49.95, hard bound.

The Introduction defines the field of conspiracy theory and the terminology, drawing on a theoretical framework through Jacques Lacan’s order of the Real, Imaginary, Symbolical (17–19). Borenstein analyzes fictions in popular culture (historical, sci-fi, and fantasy) that concern the contemporary world but pretend to be set in the past or the future. After establishing the concept of conspiracy (Chapter 1), Borenstein associates the conspiratorial mode with the melodramatic genre (Chapter 2), where history is informed by repetition and replay, building an argument for a (medialized) game with reality. The chapter focuses on alleged conspiracies that brought down the USSR, such as the Harvard and Houston Projects, which are considered alongside the novels of such writers as Grigori Klimov and Sergei Norka. Pop culture is a further evil (western) influence in this discourse of conspiratorial theories, which is held off by the “Golden Billion,” suggesting Russia’s spiritual superiority and its global influence through natural resources. The term “Russophobia” is another paranoia about western agency and influence in Russia (Chapter 3) where Borenstein demonstrates lucidly how the media representation of the 1990s became a reality: “in the Putin/Medvedev years, it is as though the vast array of horrifying products of the media/culture industry have, in a deliberately naïve reading, become the reality of the 1990s.. . . What was discursive is now true” (109). He highlights the popular action novels of Viktor Dotsenko and the writings of mathematician Igor Shafarevich, emphasizing the shifts from reality into representation. Chapter 4 deals with the meaning of liberalism and tolerance in Russia, as well as the concept of political correctness. Borenstein here looks into discourses about gay rights and family values, particularly the concern with child protection and the increasing reliance on orthodox values. Chapter 5 suggests the interest in the living dead (“zombirovanie”) as an echo of brainwashing, while the final chapter focuses on the conflict with Ukraine and its media representation, arguing convincingly how this war plays out in the media and through fictional representation (“bad writers’ war,” 209). Indeed, Sergei Loznitsa’s film Donbass about how fake news is made in this war would have been a perfect example here. This, he argues, is a proxy war not between Russia and the US but Russia and a (marginal) part of itself. Overall, Borenstein never loses sight of the American and international dimension of conspiracy theories and thus ensures this is not understood as a uniquely Russian phenomenon, which enables him to present here a pertinent and lucid analysis of recent Russian political history.