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

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:

• Nationalism
• Russia
• regime management
• contention

Notes

1. One illustrative example of the conceptual battle can be found from President Vladimir Putin’s (2014) speech at the Valdai forum in October 2014, where he nominated himself as the “biggest nationalist of the country” – and continued that this is the case as long as nationalism is interpreted as an idea that functions for the sake of the country. This commentary could be seen as a way to disarm those actors who had previously defined themselves nationalists.

2. Hybrid regimes, according to Robertson (2011, 6), is a broad category encompassing various set of regimes “in which at least some legitimate and public political competition coexists with an organizational and institutional playing field that renders this competition unfair.”

3. For example, on the homepage of the banned Slavic Union, there was a direct link to the new page and new contact information of the nationalists, even though it was stated on the same page that the activities of the movement were declared illegal in the territory of the Russian Federation (demushkin.com, 19 March 2010).

4. Belov's court hearing was postponed several times, first until January 2016, then again until June 2016, and finally until August 2016 (Kommersant’ 2015b; Lifenews 2016; Kommersant’ 2016).