Alena Ledeneva, "Russian Pendulum: Paradoxes, Practices and Patterns" (UCL Press, 2026)

Alena Ledeneva is Professor of Politics and Society at the University College London and a founder of the Global Informality Project. Her research focuses on informal practices, and she has written several Russia-focused books, including Russia’s Economy of Favours, How Russia Really Works and Can Russia Modernise. The Global Informality has also published 3 volumes of its Global Encyclopaedia of Informality. Alena is here today to talk about her new book Russian Pendulum: Paradoxes, Practices and Patterns (UCL Press, 2026), which has been shortlisted for the 2026 Pushkin House Book Prize.

Adam Quinn is a Glasgow-based researcher whose work focuses on activism, social movements and state-society relations in the Post-Soviet space.

Alena’s new book: art, music, text in a new UCL Press book in open access:

• Russian Pendulum: here
• The accompanying music: Delphian Records classical album The System Made Me Do It composed by Benjamin Woodgates: here
• And a brilliant review of the music: here

Plus, a nice mention in the BBC sounds for dark: here

Enjoy the podcast!

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.