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Abstract
Youth civic engagement in post-socialist countries and youth enrolment in defending the current regimes or contesting them became a growing topic of research in the 2000s. This essay examines a category of largely under-studied youth social engagement in Russia: patriotic clubs for children, teenagers and young adults. These clubs do not come close to the stereotypes promoted by the state patriotic education programmes. There is a major gap between the activists' patriotic narratives and practices, and those expected by the Kremlin. The first part of the paper investigates the notion of ‘patriotic club’ as a broad umbrella that covers multiple activities and practices. Then it explores their meanings and three of their main functions, as a professional tool on the job market, a source of cultural capital, and a way to develop a depoliticised social engagement.
Notes
This essay is the result of a French–Russian collective research project on ‘Patriotic practices in contemporary Russia’ undertaken between 2008 and 2010. This project was financed by an International Scientific Cooperation Programme of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and supported by the Center for the Study of the Russian, Caucasian and Central-European Worlds (CERCEC), the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI), the Fondation-Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (MSH), and the Russian State Fund for Fundamental Research (Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Nauchnyi Fond—RGNF). I thank all the participants in the DC Area Postcommunist Politics Social Science Workshop, at George Washington University, whose commentaries and critical remarks enriched my analysis, and the two anonymous reviewers. This essay would not have been possible without the regular and vivid discussions that have animated the PICS group during the two years of this project.
1 The Myplace project ‘Memory, youth, political legacy and civic engagement’ is a collaboration of 16 partners across Europe, located in leading universities with expertise in the study of young people and political participation, see the European Commission, available at: http://www.fp7-myplace.eu, accessed 6 August 2014.
2 Interview with Igor A., the head of a patriotic club focusing on aviation reconstruction, Vladivostok, 15 October 2010.
3 Interview with Daniar, the head of a military patriotic club that is a member of the Styag (banner) network, St Petersburg, 13 December 2008.
4 Interview with Nataliya, the head of a patriotic club and patriotic museum in a public school, Vladivostok, 17 October 2010.
5 This discipline, created during the Soviet period, was reintroduced into the current Russian curriculum, but is optional. Whether it is offered depends upon the desire of instructors to teach it. It includes basic military training, but also can be interpreted as an initiation to domestic and road security, and to civic education.
6 Interview with Yuri, the head of a school patriotic club with a specialisation in military models, Moscow, 15 June 2009.
7 Interview with Petr, a teacher of history and head of the patriotic museum in a public school, St Petersburg, 11 December 2008.
8 Interview with Lyubov', the head of the patriotic museum and club of a public school, Vladivostok, 18 October 2010.
9 Interview with Tatyana, the head of the patriotic centre in one of Moscow's Youth Palaces, Moscow, 17 June 2009.
10 Discussions with young people attending the programme ‘Union for the Youth of St Petersburg’, St Petersburg, 15 December 2008.
11 Interview with Varvara, the head of the patriotic civic club ‘Union for the Youth of St Petersburg’, St Petersburg, 15 December 2008.
12 Interviews with the teenagers participating in the leadership programme, St Petersburg, 15 December 2008.
13 Interview with Boris, the director of a patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, St Petersburg, 17 December 2008.
14 Interview with Sergei, the deputy director of the patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, St Petersburg, 17 December 2008.
15 In the Russian social context this term is conventionally use to describe single parent families in which the father is absent or in prison, families in which parents are alcoholic or violent, and families in which both parents are unemployed.
16 Interview with Konstantin Sokolov, the director of the Dzerzhinets centre, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
17 Interview with Lev, the head of an Orthodox patriotic club linked to a parish, Moscow, 10 June 2009.
18 Interview with Elena A., the sister of the Elisabeth Order under Hospice No. 1, St Petersburg, 6 June 2009.
19 Interview with Konstantin, one of the heads of the Scout Association for the North West region, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
20 Interview with Aleksei, an activist of the Scout Association for the North West region, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
21 Interview with Nikolai, the head of a small brigade of rekonstruktory specialising in the uniforms of the Soviet–Finnish ‘winter war’, Petrozavodsk, 29 September 2009.
22 Interview with Denis, the head of an excavation team specialising in sites around Novgorod, Moscow, 28 October 2010.
23 Interview with Elena B., who is in charge of the search teams at the Youth Centre, St Petersburg, 30 September 2009.
24 Interview with Svetlana, the head of a school patriotic club and an activist in the patriotic club at the local Youth House, Vladivostok, 19 October 2010.
25 The Dzherzhnitsev club, for example, was created in 1986 by the Afgantsy, see http://www.kop.ru/?go = cat&sho = 1172, and http://dzerjinec.narod.ru/, accessed 6 August 2014.
26 Interview with Dimitri, the head of the Moscow-based Styag section, Moscow, 26 October 2010.
27 Interview with Boris, the director of a patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, St Petersburg, 17 December 2008.
28 Interview with Lidiya, her adviser, St Petersburg, 18 December 2008.
29 Interview with Georgii, adviser to the Rus' network director, Moscow, 15 June 2009.
30 Interview with Georgii, adviser to the Rus' network director, Moscow, 15 June 2009.
31 Interview with Leonid, the head of a militarised patriotic club, Moscow, 16 June 2009.
32 Interview with Boris, the director of a patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, St Petersburg, 17 December 2008.
33 ‘Uchastniki assotsiatsii Styag’, available at: http://www.stjag.ru/article.php?nid = 29332&sq = 19,2770&crypt = , accessed 4 August 2014.
34 Interview with Konstantin Sokolov, the director of the Dzerzhinets centre, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
35 Interview with Father Aleksei, the head of an Orthodox patriotic club in the Moscow region, Moscow, 25 October 2010.
36 Interview with Yulia, the head of a militarised patriotic club at the Vorob'evye gory Youth House, Moscow, 11 June 2009.
37 This is what emerges from practically all the interviews conducted with activists, as well as with some parents.
38 Interview with Nadia, at a patriotic club specialising in combat sports, Moscow, 19 October 2010.
39 This is one element mentioned by nearly all the activists, but it is difficult to quantify.
40 Interview with Father Aleksei, the head of an Orthodox patriotic club in the Moscow region, Moscow, 25 October 2010.
41 Interview with Oleg, Youth Palace, St Petersburg, 13 December 2009.
42 All the terms given in Russian were used by the interviewees.
43 This emerged from discussions with young activists from different patriotic clubs.
44 Interview with Natasha A., head of a scout association in an industrial district of St Petersburg, 10 December 2009.
45 Interview with Leonid, the head of a militarised patriotic club, Moscow, 16 June 2009.
46 Interview with Vladimir, the head of a Cossack patriotic club, famous journalist and theoretician of Russian martial arts, Moscow, 22 June 2009.
47 Interview with Konstantin and Aleksei, Scout Association for the North West region, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
48 Interview with Petr, a teacher of history and the head of the patriotic museum in a public school, St Petersburg, 11 December 2008.
49 Interview with Oliya, a very active member of a poiskoviki brigade, St Petersburg, 14 December 2009.
50 Interview with Vera A., the head of a militarised patriotic club at the Vorob'evye gory Youth House, Moscow, 11 June 2009; and discussions with female teenagers at different patriotic clubs.
51 Even among Orthodox patriotic clubs, for instance during interviews with Father Aleksei, the head of an Orthodox patriotic club in the Moscow region, Moscow, 25 October 2010.
52 Interview with Andrei, director of a patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, Moscow, 14 October 2010.
53 Interviews with youth activists in the historical patriotic club at the Druzhba Youth House, St Petersburg, 12 December 2008; and the rekonstruktory specialising in the uniforms of the Soviet–Finnish ‘winter war’, Petrozavodsk, 29 September 2009.
54 Interview with Dimitri, director of a small patriotic sports club, suburbs of Petrozavodsk, 27 September 2010.
55 Interview with Shura, instructor at the Dzerzhinets club, St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
56 Interview with Elena C., one of the founders of the National Organisation of voluntary Rus', St Petersburg, 16 December 2008.
57 Interview with Anton, Youth Palace, St Petersburg, 18 December 2009.
58 Interview with Olya, teaching kraevedenie at one of the St Petersburg Youth Palaces, St Petersburg, 11 December 2009.
59 Interview with Boris, the director of a patriotic club preparing young people for military conscription, St Petersburg, 17 December 2008.
60 Interview with Yulia, the head of a militarised patriotic club at the Vorob'evye gory Youth House, Moscow, 11 June 2009.
61 Interview with Dima, Druzhba Youth House, St Petersburg, 8 September 2010.
62 Interview with Igor B., the head of a patriotic club for training future conscripts, Moscow, 26 October 2010.
63 Interview with Natasha B., Youth Palace, Petrozavodsk, 29 October 2010.
64 Interview with Svetlana, the head of a school patriotic club and activist in the patriotic club at the local Youth House, Vladivostok, 19 October 2010.
65 Interview with Vera B., the Young Trooper, Moscow, 16 June 2009.