Russia’s War by Jade McGlynn

Russia’s War by Jade McGlynn is a book I wanted to read and that I received as a Christmas gift. I am so happy I read it because it is very good. It focuses on the russian perspective, but in a balanced way and with a lot of moral clarity. This book in no way white washes what the russians are doing in Ukraine.

McGlynn is a russian analyst and she loves the country and their culture, so her views are refreshing to read. To write this book she used interviewed ordinary citizens, but also elites and officials. She looked into the parallel universe created by russian media, in which their military fights “nazis”, while their soldiers are kind-hearted and courageous.

The views from russia, which she describes clearly, are juxtaposed with the reality on the ground. She accurately depicted what the russians soldiers are doing in Ukraine and that this war is genocidal in nature. I fully agree with her conclusions that the russians can only grow if they accept their own history of colonisation and their own crimes.

There are only 2 downsides to the book, both because it was published last year before these 2 things happened. Firstly, she said that the sanctions didn’t do what they were supposed to do. This is clear now that the sanctions did affect russia’s ability to fight, hence their increased reliance on Iranian drones and missiles, and North Korean missiles, ammo, and soldiers. From a macroeconomic point of view, russia is doing very poorly. They are paying the North Koreans with oil and technological transfers.
Secondly, she talked about the Olenivka prison massacre of 29 July 2022, the russians killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs. She couldn’t anticipate that the russians will use the lack of suitable response for this to increase the number of occasions in which they executed POWs, which is now a weekly occurrence, at least. This is filmed/photographed by them, shared online, and thousands of russians are cheering. As I said, these 2 things happened more recently in these numbers.

Russia’s War by Jade McGlynn

Details about the picture: –
My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes!
Published by: Polity
Year it was published: 2023
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): History – russia
Pages: 264

About the author: Jade McGlynn is an author and Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Her research focusses on Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014, propaganda, memory politics, and state-society relations in Russia.
Her first book, Russia’s War, was released on 17th March 2023. It explains why Russians support the war on Ukraine (order here). Her second book, Memory Makers, came out on 1st June 2023 and shows how the Kremlin rebuilt a mythical past to justify a militant present (order here.). Both books are based on over a decade of research into Russian politics of memory and propaganda, including Jade’s DPhil research, which she completed at the University of Oxford.
You can find Jade’s journalism and expert commentary in a wide variety of international media outlets, from CNN to The Times. This is in addition to her academic work at King’s College London and her policy work with New Diplomacy Project and CSIS.
Jade is also often engaged as a public speaker and to consult on issues of foreign policy, diplomacy and defence relating to Russia and Ukraine by governments and organisations in the UK, USA, and beyond. She splits her time between the UK and Ukraine and is a fluent Russian and Ukrainian speaker.
Website & Social Media Links: jademcglynn