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This is the translation from the Russian original, which was published by New Literary Review – the sixth book I have created in tandem with this unique publishing house. For this and much else I give my deepest thanks to Irina Prokhorova. I could not imagine my intellectual itinerary without her trust and support. And it is the third of my books to be published by Polity Press. I am deeply grateful to John Thompson for the pleasure of a collaboration over many years. The editor of the Russian version was Ilya Kalinin. He has done an excellent job, as he always does; I hope we will continue our conversations. The Zimin Foundation supported the translation project – another step in their tremendous contribution to international scholarship. Courageously and painstakingly, the translation was done by Sara Jolly. It was much more than translation – a true co-authorship. I am thankful for this unexpected opportunity to learn, to teach, and to advance together. Masha Bratischeva generously helped me with the manuscript in both languages.

While I was writing this book I had a lot of other things on my plate, and I feel grateful to all of them for kindly allowing me to get it finished. I was helped very much by the generosity of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. The book grew out of several post-graduate seminars, and many PhD students contributed to it with their probing questions. For support and criticism of my ideas I am indebted to my colleagues Federico Romero, Regina Grafe, Pavel Kolar, Dirk Moses, Laura Downs, Ann Thompson, Giorgio Riello, Giancarlo Casale, Stephane van Damme and Glenda Sluga.

This text starts with a story that I learnt from my friend Dmitry Panchenko; he helped me with some other stories as well. Less obvious, but also important, has been my long-standing dialogue with Oleg Kharkhordin. From various corners of Europe, Leif Wenar, Mikhail Minakov, Kacper Szuletski and Sergey Medvedev have given me their feedback and advice. I am grateful to Evgeny Anisimov for his help with one incident from the times of Peter the Great and to Alexander Philippov for discussing the times of Ivan the Terrible. Anastasia Pilavsky and Dina Guseinova helped with advice on everything, including the title. Anatoly Belogorsky and Martin Malek spotted some mistakes in the Russian edition.

I am eternally grateful to the late Mark Etkind, Moisei Kagan, Efim Etkind and Svetlana Boym. My mother, Julia Kagan, has been the greatest source of love and support. My brother Mikhail Kagan and my cousin Masha Etkind shared with me many moments of joy and sorrow. Elizabeth R. Moore was both an inspiration and a reality check. My friends and role models – Leonid Gozman, Jay Winter, Simon Franklin, Ely Zaretsky, Nancy Fraser, Vadim Volkov, Timothy Mitchell, Maxine Berg, Aleida Assmann, Jane Burbank, Tony La Vopa, Stephen Kotkin and Katerina Clark – have left their imprints in this book. Many other important thanks are at the very end of this volume: the bibliography there is the inventory of my intellectual debts.

Over the years, I kept discussing this growing manuscript with my teenage sons, as it is all about the problems confronting their generation. So the book is dedicated to Mark and Mika.