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If you suspect that Vladimir Putin’s decision-making process is above the creed of superstition and mythical creatures, you should know that there are psychologists, intelligence agency analysts and a jailed Yakutsk wizard out there who would beg to differ.
“Putin and his entourage take the spirit world very seriously,” says a Kremlin official who requested anonymity to ensure his security, navigating what some insiders maintain is the Russian president’s Twilight Zone. “It’s not a big leap of faith for a Russian to think Putin will do what’s necessary to destroy anyone looking to exorcize the imaginary demons who they believe give him power.”
In his new book Hitler’s Monsters, Eric Kurlander looks at the specific influence supernatural ideas had on the emergence and consequences of Nazi ideology. He argues that the invocation and appropriation of popular esoteric, border-scientific, and religio-mythological beliefs helped Adolf Hitler’s party to attract supporters, dehumanize its enemies, and pursue its imperial and racial ambitions. But — the historian tells Jacobin’s Ondřej Bělíček — these ideas also took root in a particular sociopolitical context — one that’s reproducing itself, if not on the same scale, also in our own present. jacobin.com...