A Theory of Collective Fear
Causes and Dimensions Using Russia as an Example
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Every culture has specific techniques and rituals for learning and controlling fear. Fear is suppressed from consciousness and at the same time forms a horizon of everyday life. The boundary between permissible fear and taboo shapes the fundamental order of society. If fear takes on a form that blocks rational analysis of its causes, this indicates that it is being deliberately gen-erated and spread. Behind such fear lies a repressive state that exercises unlimited power over the population. This is the case in Russia. The fear pro-duced by Stalinist mass terror subsided in the late 1980s, but remained an-chored in the political culture. The Putin regime has revived it and exploited it to mobilise and control society.
(Osteuropa 10/2025, pp. 5–34)