Programs and projects for the development of the Russian Far East in the late XXth – the beginning of the XXIst century through the lens of social anthropology (Review of «Potential Far East: How development projects flourish and fade in Russia’s largest region» (2024) by Anatoliy Savchenko et al.)

This review examines a collective monograph analyzing development projects in the Russian Far East from the late XXth to early XXIst century. The book is evaluated within the existing historiography of Russia’s «pivot to the East». The reviewer highlights its strengths, including the application of a socio-anthropological approach and indepth case studies (e.g., Free Economic Zone in Nakhodka), while noting contentious aspects such as the authors’ excessive reliance on foreign theories and terminology, as well as imbalances between theoretical and empirical analysis in some chapters.