How did the Russian state apparatus appropriate and instrumentalize Russia’s classical literary heritage during Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term from 2012 to 2018? This study examines the Russian leadership’s top-down strategies of identity politics from a neo-Durkheimian, cultural-sociological perspective. Drawing on an extensive body of primary and secondary sources, the book adopts a comprehensive approach by way of combining textual interpretation with analysis of various empirical manifestations of identity policies. The argument unfolds through five case studies that explore textual and “imagined” representations of Russian identity, focusing on the interaction between school education and the literary canon; the symbolic representation of national identity in the media (including television and film); and its empirical manifestations, such as physical and personal embodiment, performances, and media-ritualized expressions in which Putin actively participated. Each case study examines reactions within the Russian cultural community and the reception of these top-down initiatives in mass media.The book offers fresh insights into identity politics as an interactive process that involves not only political elites and state structures, but also a wider range of actors, institutions, and societal events. It contributes to a better understanding of nation-building in unsettled times by showing how the symbolic capital of Russian literature continues to function as an effective tool for shaping national identity, maintaining the status quo, and legitimizing political agendas.