Reviews After Space Utopia Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov

Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov, After Space Utopia: Post-Soviet Russia and Futures in Space (Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, May 12, 2023), 210 pages. External opponent: Associate Professor Arita Holmberg, Swedish Defence University, Stockholm.

Published on balticworlds.com on September 12, 2023

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Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov, After Space Utopia: Post-Soviet Russia and Futures in Space (Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, May 12, 2023), 210 pages. External opponent: Associate Professor Arita Holmberg, Swedish Defence University, Stockholm.

Since the early 2000s, new projects of space expansionism have emerged in Russa, including commercial, military-driven and scientific projects to colonize the Moon and Mars. This renewed interest in space, sometimes labelled the New Space Race, has been manifested in contemporary research in political science and international relations (IR). In his doctoral dissertation After Space Utopia: Post-Soviet Russia and Futures in Space, Södertörn University, 2023, Roman Privalov investigates possible ways of constructing alternative (i.e. non-regime initiated) social and political space futures in Russia. Thus, the topic of the thesis is futuristic utopian imagination, which is admittedly not very conventional for a PhD thesis in political science.

The thesis is made up of a lengthy introduction plus a compilation of five inter-related articles: (1) “Russian Space Policy and Identity: Visionary or Reactionary?”, published in Journal of International Relations and Development (2) “Through the Thorns to Where? The Politics of Alternative Appropriations of Soviet Space Culture in Contemporary Russia”, published in Space Policy (3) “Is the Future Soviet? USSR-2061 and the Reality of Utopia”, published in Praktyka Teoretyczna (4) “’It Will Develop With or Without Us’: The New Space Politics of Expertise and Advocacy in Post-Soviet Russia”, and (5) “Lines of Flight from Space Empire: Political Futures of Global Pace Expansionism through Russian Imperial Space Fiction” (the two latter unpublished at the time of the public defense).

Roman Privalov is inspired by a method typically used in the humanities, narrative analysis, which is also common in literature studies, sociology, communication, linguistics, historiography, and in many other fields. I find this methodological approach to very useful when it comes to analyses of stories about who we are, be it as individuals, groups or nations, and where we are going; like for example when Privalov discusses narratives performing legitimacy functions.

Looking more closely at the papers compiled in the thesis, Article 1 deals with (the lack of) grand, forward-looking visions in the Russian space program. It cannot really be compared to the old Soviet space program, nor to present American or Chinese ambitions. It would seem that being able to keep up with other nations is considered good enough; even if the preferred self-image has been that Russia is indeed America’s “significant other” in space.

Article 2 is about contemporary Russian attempts to appropriate Soviet space culture, and it highlights the transformation of Soviet space into ”usable history” for the present-day Russian regime. Article 3 draws attention to the project USSR-2061, an online community of writers and artists who depict a future Soviet era, a century after Yuri Gagarin’s journey into space. In Article 4, focus is on (interviews with) Russian space experts and advocates, with weak ties or no ties at all to politics and power. In Article 5, the author returns to cultural productions (like in Articles 2 and 3), and analyzes science-fiction stories set in space, emphasizing links to dominant conservative discourses in present-day Russia.

After Space Utopia demonstrates Roman Privalov’s ability to say something very interesting about (non-regime initiated) stories of collective belonging in post-Soviet Russia. Privalov started his PhD before Vladimir Putin’s fatal decision to launch a full-scale re-invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, when scholars talked about a New Space Race, it was assumed that this race was between the US, China, and Russia (and, possibly India). Writing this book review in the summer of 2023, Russia’s future participation in the space race (or in any race) remains to be seen.

Public defense of doctoral dissertation: Roman Privalov, After Space Utopia: Post-Soviet Russia and Futures in Space (Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, May 12, 2023), 210 pages. External opponent: Associate Professor Arita Holmberg, Swedish Defence University, Stockholm.