Stop the Invasion! Money, Patriotism, and Conspiracy in Russia

Based on a set of interviews and materials collected in Barnaul (Siberia) in 2001-2005, this article explores the discursive mechanisms through which new social realities and new social identities are imagined, negotiated, and internalized in postsocialist Russia. By analyzing popular conspiracy narratives about universal lying, corruption, and manipulation, the article draws attention to the increasing prominence of images and ideas of an enclosed national community that are used to counterbalance the perceived exposure to foreign values and capital after the collapse of the Soviet Union.