Russia in a Fur Coat. Russian Fur: History, National Identity, and Cultural Status

More than a thousand years of tradition in fur usage is one of the most important mythologemes of Russian material culture. The love for fur clothing is mentioned equally often in both foreign and domestic sources that analyze the specifics of national fashion. The book by Bella Shapiro and Denis Lyapin is one of the first large-scale studies aimed at tracing how this tradition has formed and changed from Ancient Russia to the present day. The authors examine fur as a multi-level hypertext and narrate the story not of styles and silhouettes, but of the ideas that accompany the fate of Russian fur — political, socio-economic, and scientific. Bella Shapiro is a Doctor of Cultural Studies, a Candidate of Historical Sciences, a professor at the Department of Cinema and Contemporary Art at RGGU, and a professor at the Department of Philosophy and Social-Humanitarian Disciplines at the MKhAT School-Studio. Denis Lyapin is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, head of the Department of History and Historical-Cultural Heritage at I.A. Bunin YSU.