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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the developing cult of a new martyr – the Russian soldier Evgenii Rodionov, killed in 1996 in Chechen captivity, allegedly for his refusal to convert to Islam. I examine how the notion of moral personhood – a capacity to have convictions and values and to stand by them – emerges as a central object of ethical problematization across the disparate narratives of the soldier’s death. I argue that the appeal of the radical model of morality personified by the soldier’s figure reflects a pervasive trend of longing for spirituality in contemporary Russia, which developed in response to the perceived moral collapse that followed the democratic transition. Through investigating how Evgenii’s image is being employed as a public symbol of patriotism and as a private moral exemplar for militaristically oriented young men, this article contributes to the understanding of the entangled relationship among religion, nationalism and conservative morality in contemporary Russia.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Vlad Naumescu, Alina-Sandra Cucu and Thomas Rooney for their helpful and insightful comments on the earlier drafts of this manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The names of all informants, with the exception of public figures, have been either changed or omitted to protect their anonymity.
2. For the purposes of this article, I use the terms ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ interchangeably to refer both to the explicit norms and values that regulate social life and with which individuals consciously seek to comply and to the multiple tacit logics by which agents negotiate (with varying degrees of reflexivity) their relationship to other human and non-human entities in everyday life.
3. A detailed account of Liubov’'s encounter with Ruslan Khaikhoroev can be found in her biography compiled by Maksim Smirnov Sil’nee Smerti Liubov’ (2012).
4. A nickname derivative from the Russian name Evgenii.
5. From my interview with Liubov’ Rodionova (April 2013).
6. From my interview with Liubov’ Rodionova (29 May 2016).
7. From my interview with Father Konstantin (May 2016).
8. The conclusion is drawn based on the analysis of the 32 interviews with Evgenii's venerators I have carried out between 2014 and 2016 as well as on the discourse analysis of 4 different versions of published biographic accounts of Evgenii's life and more than 20 separate newspaper articles discussing Evgenii Rodionov's death published between 1999 and 2016.
9. Although the Orientalizing images of the Chechen insurgents as inherently violent and prone to criminality occasionally run through the narratives and visual representations of the soldier's death, a distinctly anti-Chechen or anti-Islamic rhetoric (with a notable exception of the Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers) is rarely present in Evgenii's commemorative discourses.
10. Chernikova (Citation2011).
11. Khanov (Citation2010).
12. From my interview with Andrei Fefelov (May 2016).
13. The club is named after Aleksandr Suvorov, the eighteenth century Russian legendary military commander.
14. From my interview with Airat (July 2016).
15. From my interview with Liubov’ Rodionova (April 2013).
16. Khanov (Citation2002) and Rodionova (Citation2008).
17. A derogatory term used in colloquial Russian to refer to the people from Caucasus or Central Asia.
18. From my interview with Liubov’ Rodionova (April 2013).
19. From my interview with Andrei Korobtsov (April 2013).
20. The number of visitors varies across years from a few hundred to two or three thousand.
21. Christian Orthodox hymn service dedicated to a saint or a holy event.
22. Between 2014 and 2016, the group has completed nine successful visits to the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
23. Evgenii practiced boxing during his school years (Fefelov Citation2006).
24. This phrase is an allusion to the refrain from a popular nineteenth century military song.
25. John 15: 13.
26. Laurelle (Citation2015, 22) makes a similar observation in her discussion of the Russian patriotic club members’ discourses on values.