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Paper Short Abstract:

By 2022, a massive industry of online "Marathons of Wishes" had emerged in Russia. What kind of socio-political conditions have created such a huge demand for the ability to wish, to dream, and for the affect associated with it? What type of agency and ethical regime do those marathons promote?

Paper Abstract:

By 2022, a massive industry of online "Marathons of Wishes" had emerged in Russia. The most popular of these marathons is associated with Elena Blinovskaya, a former housewife who, according to legend, became a billionaire by teaching people how to dream properly. Such phenomena are usually discussed as deception of gullible people, but I suggest taking a serious look at the content of such marathons.

The marathon consists of basic psychotherapeutic techniques - you are given homework with questions like "Who am I?", "What do I want from my life?" and so on. The techniques are mixed with esoteric elements about "The Universe" favouring you, which should increase the affective component of the course. The marathons are aimed at a predominantly female audience - women who have to cope daily with the burden of responsibility for family, children and their own lives while living in huge inequalities and institutional conditions that are as unfriendly as possible to income growth and vertical mobility.

Based on the autoethnographic experience of participating in such a marathon, observations of other participants and analysis of Blinovskaya's social media presence, I will discuss what kind of agency and ethical regime these marathons promote. What socio-political conditions have created a massive demand for the ability to wish, to dream, and for the associated effect? Is the attempt to psychologize everyday difficulties a way of diverting attention from existing structural problems in Russian society, or is there still room for proactive agency within this phenomenon?