Everyone Mr. Mian meets is obsessed with Russianness, always defined in opposition to the materialist West. Whereas many Westerners see the period between the end of the U.S.S.R. and the rise of Vladimir Putin as a time of freedom, Russians, even those who have dared to be critical of the Ukraine war, describe it as an era of national humiliation when, as one Russian explains to Mr. Mian, “the West tried to destroy us by poisoning the source of our identity.” Adopting “a new social ideal . . . based on egocentrism, hedonism, and narcissism,” Russia almost allowed itself to be destroyed. Now things are different. As a well-known rapper sings: “I’m lucky to be Russian so I can stick it to the world.”