Contemporary Britain in the Works of Russian Scholars

Abstract

The article is dedicated to major findings of Russian scholars on a broad range of topics in the field of British studies. The works selected are mainly focused on the analysis of political, security and socio-economic models of development and trends in the UK from 1991 to 2021. The topics, which were most elaborated in the 1990s, related to the phenomena of Thatcherism, Third Way, the party-political system, social and economic model, British monarchy. Later the problems of devolution and constitutional reforms, identity politics, Euroscepticism, Brexit and migration, the concept of Global Britain shifted to the centre of attention. The study shows that Russian specialists tend to rely not only on empirical studies and approaches but have accumulated a rich experience in profound theoretical and conceptual understanding of the processes under scrutiny and demonstrate a high degree of critical reflection on the research implemented by foreign experts on British studies. Russian scholars pay interest both to structural and institutional processes and to concrete personalities and subjective factor in history. The undertaken research demonstrates a high degree of net working in cooperation among Russian specialists on British Studies, who represent different academic, educational centres and scientific schools.