Vadim Nikitin | The Nation

Ever since 1991, Russians have been looking to the Soviet past for comfort and pride.

A new generation of web-savvy civic activists are steadily builiding a participatory, nonideological and conspicuously patriotic movement against official corruption.

Indifference and suspicion might be as much to blame as authoritarianism for Russia's lack of democracy. That's why an uptick in local-level civic engagement is welcome news.