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Contemporary Russian nationalisms: the state, nationalist movements, and the shared space in between

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Veera Laine
Veera Laine*
Affiliation:
EU's Eastern Neighborhood and Russia Research Program, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki, Finland
*
∗Email: veera.laine@fiia.fi
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Abstract

For several years, various nationalist groups and the Russian state have been competing over nationalism as a political concept and for popular support to nationalist claims. This paper analyzes the relationship between the state and anti-government, ethnocentric nationalistic groups that gather annually in an event called “the Russian March.” Emphasis is on the change in that relationship that happened in 2014, when the state added efforts to channel and mobilize the nationalists to its previous repressive and controlling measures. The article conceptualizes the competition over the nationalist argument in contemporary Russia as a case of dissentful and consentful contention in hybrid regimes, and shows how the dissentful nationalists have been forced to make way for the more consentful ones. Until recently, the room for maneuver for the radical nationalists was relatively wide. The events in Ukraine, however, divided the nationalists, and since 2014 radical nationalists have faced increased state repression. At the same time, pro-government nationalist actors have strengthened, and new players have appeared in the field. These developments tell us not only about the Kremlin's diminished tolerance for dissentful contention, but also about the importance of the nationalist argument in Russian politics today.

Keywords

NationalismRussiaregime managementcontention
Type
Special Section: Perspectives on Russian Nationalism
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 2017 , pp. 222 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Primary online sources:

Accessed through Internet Archive from August 2011 until December 2014, and directly from December 2014 until December 2015:Google Scholar
http://rumarsh.info, official site of the Russian March movement.Google Scholar
http://4-november.livejournal.com/, organizational blog of the Russian March.Google Scholar
http://krylov.livejournal.com/, blog of Konstantin Krylov.Google Scholar
http://vk.com/rumarsh, Vkontakte community page of the Russian March movement.Google Scholar
http://vk.com/demushkin, personal Vkontakte profile page of Dmitri Demushkin. Accessed directly, from December 2014 until December 2015:Google Scholar
http://rusnod.ru/, the official site of the National-Liberation Movement.Google Scholar
https://vk.com/mvkatasonova, personal Vkontakte profile page of Maria Katasonova.Google Scholar
http://novorossia.pro/, site of Igor Strelkov's Novorossiia Movement.Google Scholar

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