Meduza's publishing house has released a book by historian and co-founder of the Russian Independent Media Archive (RIMA), Ilya Venyavkin, titled “The Temple of War: The People and Ideas That Made the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Possible.”

Drawing on open sources, Venyavkin traces the biographies of nine very different public figures — from Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina to blogger and “war correspondent” Andrei “Murza” Morozov. Through their life stories, the author shows how these individuals, through their actions and rhetoric, helped construct the image of an external enemy supposedly threatening Russia.

Many of the sources used for “Temple of War” are in our archive. Here are the most interesting ones.