The notion of the Russian soul - this ineffable essence that defines the Russian people - has its origin in figures like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Turgenev. Despite this literary pedigree, these days it’s animated in the speeches of Vladimir Putin, stoking Russia’s national exceptionalism and anti-Western sentiment. But even though we can’t separate Russian politics from Russian culture, whether we can trace a direct line from the myth of the Russian soul to the war in Ukraine is highly questionable, argues Josephine von Zitzewitz.