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In Russian politics reliable information is scarce, formal relations are of relatively little significance, and things are seldom what they seem. Applying an original theory of political language to narratives taken from interviews with 34 of Russia's leading political figures, Michael Urban explores the ways in which political actors construct themselves with words. By tracing individual narratives back to the discourses available to speakers, he identifies what can and cannot be intelligibly said within the bounds of the country's political culture, and then documents how elites rely on the personal elements of political discourse at the expense of those addressed to the political community. Urban shows that this discursive orientation is congruent with social relations prevailing in Russia and helps to account for the fact that, despite two revolutions proclaiming democracy in the last century, Russia remains an authoritarian state.

Political culture --- Elite (Social sciences) --- Politicians --- Discourse analysis --- Discourse grammar --- Text grammar --- Semantics --- Semiotics --- Elites (Social sciences) --- Leadership --- Power (Social sciences) --- Social classes --- Social groups --- Language. --- Political aspects --- Russia (Federation) --- Politics and government --- Language --- Social Sciences --- Political Science --- Political culture - Russia (Federation) --- Elite (Social sciences) - Russia (Federation) - Language --- Politicians - Russia (Federation) - Interviews --- Discourse analysis - Political aspects - Russia (Federation) --- Russia (Federation) - Politics and government - 1991 --- -Political culture --- -Discourse analysis

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Michael Urban chronicles the advent of blues music in Russia and explores the significance of the genre in the turbulent, postcommunist society. Russians, he explains, have taken a music originating in the "low" culture of the American South and transformed it into an object of "high" culture, fashioning a social identity that distinguishes blues adherents from both the discredited Soviet past and the vulgar consumerism associated with the country's Westernization. While adapting the idiom to their own conditions, Russia's bliuzmeny (bluesmen) have absorbed the blues ethos encoded in the music by their American forebears, using it to invert their social world, thus deriving dignity and satisfaction from those very things that give one the blues.Based on more than forty interviews with blues musicians and fans, nightclub managers, and others, Russia Gets the Blues reveals the fascinating history of blues in Russia, from the initial mimicry of British blues-rock to the recent emergence of a specifically "Russian blues." The gradual mastering of the idiom in Russia has been conditioned by the culture of the country's intelligentsia, a fact explaining why, on one hand, bliuzmeny feel compelled to proselytize on behalf of the music, to share with others this treasure of "world culture," while, on the other, they perform blues almost exclusively in English-which almost no one understands-and condemn any and all efforts to make the music commercially successful.

Popular music --- Blues (Music) --- Blues (Songs, etc.) --- Jive (Music) --- African Americans --- Folk music --- Rhythm and blues music --- Washboard band music --- Music, Popular --- Music, Popular (Songs, etc.) --- Pop music --- Popular songs --- Popular vocal music --- Songs, Popular --- Vocal music, Popular --- Music --- Cover versions --- History and criticism.