Whether or not you know the difference between geopolitics and biopolitics, read this short book for its inordinate theoretical clarity, the luminescent details, and—not in the least—for how it complicates scholarly thought about the post-Soviet varieties of postmodernity.

Georgi Derluguian, NYU Abu Dhabi

This study—in which political philosophy and cultural studies cross-pollinate each other—is a long-awaited attempt at reading the post-Soviet experience beyond the dominant institutional, geopolitical, and ideological approaches of largely Western post-Sovietology. This important undertaking demonstrates the authors’ ability to complicate standard Foucauldian theory into a refreshing analysis of biopolitical changes across a number of post-Soviet countries. Andrey Makarychev and Alexandra Yatsyk combine their efforts to rethink major biopolitical theories with an excellent command of versatile and rich empirical material.

Madina Tlostanova, Linköping University

This fascinating study breaks new ground in the study of critical biopolitics by taking key concepts outside of the Western liberal comfort zone and applying them to the illiberal zone of post-Soviet politics, culture, and society. It not only provides a new approach to the study of Russia and former Soviet countries—such as Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine—but also new insights into connections between biopolitics and illiberal politics in the West. This book is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in political theory, cultural studies, or developments in the borderlands between Europe and Russia.

Paul Patton, author of Deleuzian Concepts: Philosophy, Colonization, Politics and translator of Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition, Wuhan University and Flinders University