Today’s image of the vampire in Russia is a fascinating case study in how people both bring Slavic folklore to life in the digital age and how they make use of developing technologies to participate in political protest. For instance,... more
Today’s image of the vampire in Russia is a fascinating case study in how people both bring Slavic folklore to life in the digital age and how they make use of developing technologies to participate in political protest. For instance, online commentators and political cartoonists portray Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, as a modern-day vampire who feeds on the dual policies of expansionism and political repression. On the other hand, his uncanny ability to avoid the signs of aging bolsters his hold on power and further aligns Putin with the vampire and the character’s subsequent iterations in popular culture. Using the vampire to convey political and social anxieties predates Putin’s presidency. Given the vampire’s possession of taboo knowledge and its ability to wreak havoc on communities, the figure appears as a simulacrum for a politically savvy, yet heinously unjust, ruler. From the tyrannical Vlad Dracula (1431-1476) who impaled his advisories and then reportedly drank their blood, to the display of Vladimir Lenin’s (1870-1924) embalmed, seemingly “undead” body on Moscow’s Red Square, longevity of the state has paralleled the search for ultimate sovereignty, both in life and in death. This article examines a variety of folktales, fiction (including Stoker's Dracula and Pelevin's Empire V) and media (including film and memes). We argue that the supernatural in modern Russia in the form of the vampire myth performs paradoxical functions, in that it both serves to legitimize the autocratic state, while at the same time is weaponized (by journalists, artists, Internet users) to critique the Putin regime
