Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives by Hilary Pilkington (Sociology), Elena Omel’chenko, Al’bina Garifzianova, Routledge 2010.

Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives provides a thorough examination of the phenomenon of skinheads, explaining its nature and its significance, and assessing how far Russian skinhead subculture is the ‘lumpen’ end of the extreme nationalist ideological spectrum. There are large numbers of skinheads in Russia, responsible for a significant number of xenophobic attacks, including 97 deaths in 2008 alone, making this book relevant to Russian specialists as well as to sociologists of youth subculture. It provides a practical example of how to investigate youth subculture in depth over an extended period – in this case through empirical research following a specific group over six years – and goes on to argue that Russian skinhead subculture is not a direct import from the West, and that youth cultural practices should not be reduced to expressions of consumer choice. It presents an understanding of the Russian skinhead as a product of individuals’ whole, and evolving, lives, and thereby compels sociologists to rethink how they conceive the nature of subcultures.

Elena Omel’chenko is Professor of Sociology and Head of Department of Sociology at the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, and Director of the Scientific Research Centre Region, Ul’ianovsk.

Al’bina Garifzianova is a Senior Research Fellow at the Scientific Research Centre Region, Ul’ianovsk

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