Becoming patriots in Russia: biopolitics, fashion, and nostalgia

Abstract

The article seeks to explore the common ground between biopolitics, fashion, patriotism and nostalgia. Taking off from the Foucauldian notion of biopolitics as a control apparatus exerted over a population, I provide an insight into the modern construction of the Russian nation, where personal and collective sacrifice, traditional femininity and masculinity, orthodox religion, and the Great Patriotic War become the basis for patriotism. On carefully chosen case studies, I will show how the state directly and indirectly regulates people’s lives by producing narratives, which are translated (in some cases designers act as mouthpieces for the state demographic or military politics) into fashionable discourses and, with a core of time, create specific gender norms – women are seen as fertile mothers giving birth to new soldiers, while men are shown as fighters and defenders of their nation. In the constructed discourses, conservative ideals become a ground for the creation of an idea of a nation as one biological body, where brothers and sisters are united together. In these fashionable narratives, people’s bodies become a battlefield of domestic politics. Fashion produces a narrative of a healthy nation to ensure the healthy work- and military force.

Keywords:

• biopolitics
• Russia
• nostalgia
• fashion
• patriotism
• national identity

Acknowledgements

In developing the ideas presented here, I have received helpful input from my supervisors, Professor Johan Fornäs and Associate Professor Staffan Ericson, Södertrön University. The article is based on empirical research I have conducted for my doctoral dissertation, Mediated Post-Soviet Nostalgia (2014), but have not included in the published text.

Notes

1. Nashi, the “Youth Democratic Anti-Fascist Movement,” claimed to be independent but in fact received financial and administrative backing from the Kremlin (see Atwal and Bacon 2012, 2009).

2. For more information about the brand see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBrDCL4mHlI.

3. For more information about the brand see: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Putinversteher/923254937704512.

4. This is indeed a subject for profound discussion, which should be investigated through the study of specific practices and deserves particular attention. In this paper, I use in-depth interviews to try to shed light on the designers’ perspective on the role of their fashion. Nevertheless, I realize that the opinions they reveal to me might be subject to the positions we had during the interview – the designers could withhold some information as well as use me to promote their agendas.

5. For more information about the brand visit its official website: http://www.denissimachev.com.

6. Similar unisex ideals, often but not exclusively inspired by Scandinavian design, can be found among collections of Moscow and St. Petersburg street-fashion brands, such as Buttermilk Garments, Perversus, and Husky.

7. For more information about the brand visit its official page: http://shapovalova.ru/.

8. For more information on Set' movement, visit their website http://проектсеть.рф/

9. For information about the brand, see www.konasov.com.

10. For information about the brand, see www.anyavanya.ru. The website also provides an extensive review of media coverage of the brand. The reviews are mostly positive and claim that the brand has had enormous success.

11. For more information, see the official website: http://www.fadm.gov.ru/directions/patrioticheskoe-vospitanie/.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (http://ostersjostiftelsen.se).