During his tenure as Russia's President and subsequently as Prime Minister, Putin transcended politics, to become the country's major cultural icon. This book explores his public persona as glamorous hero-the man uniquely capable of restoring Russia's reputation as a global power. Analysing cultural representations of Putin, the book assesses the role of the media in constructing and disseminating this image and weighs the Russian populace's contribution to the extraordinary acclamation he enjoyed throughout the first decade of the new millennium, challenged only by a tiny minority.

Helena Goscilo is Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

Introduction 1. Russia's Ultimate Celebrity: VVP as VIP Objet d'artHelena Goscilo 2. A Personality Cult for the Postmodern Age: Reading Vladimir Putin's Public Persona Julie A. Cassiday and Emily D. Johnson 3. Putin as the Father of the Nation: His Family and Other Animals Tatiana Mikhailova 4. Putin's Language Michael Gorham 5. The Discourse of a Spectacle at the End of the Presidential Term Lara Ryazanova-Clarke 6. Putin in Russian Fiction Andrei Rogatchevski 7. Post-Soviet Self-Fashioning and the Politics of Representation Brian James Baer 8. Putin's Performance of Masculinity: the Action Hero and Macho Sex-Object Helena Goscilo