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ABSTRACT
Although it lasted until as recently as 2009, before an official end was put to the Second Chechen War, famously branded as an anti-terrorist campaign, the process of reintegrating Chechnya in the realm of the Russian Federation started earlier. Politically, the so-called Chechenisation has played a central role in this process. Symbolically, however, popular culture and Russian visual culture about the conflict in particular contributed to the renegotiating process of Chechen and Russian post-Soviet identities and their interrelationship in the aftermath of the conflict. An analysis of the symbolic representation of masculine subjectivities in such cultural productions offers an insight into how popular culture functioned as a means to rehabilitate formerly demonised Chechen masculine subjectivity. It also points to the process of remasculinisation which went along with the introduction of Putin’s neo-traditionalist policy in Russian society.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The background on post-Soviet masculinity is particularly informed by the sociological and anthropological knowledge on Russian masculinities. There is a considerable gap of knowledge on Chechen masculinities in the field of post-Soviet masculinities.
2. The bombings of apartments in Moscow have caused controversy following speculation that implied the involvement of the Russian secret services.
3. Orientalism refers to the articulation of the western view of ‘the Orient’, with the Middle East and Arab states as distinctly different from the West, suggesting their inferiority and subordination.
4. It reminds us of the popular veneration of Evgeny Rodionov (1977–1996), a captured Russian soldier who was executed because he allegedly refused to convert to Islam.
5. The term is derived from the Russian word ded meaning grandfather. It is army slang referring to the ‘rule of the elders’ and encompasses practices of army initiation. The term has a bad connotation in Russian society and is associated with severe bullying, hazing and terrorising of army recruits.
6. Remarkably, the Russian Orthodox Church is not featured, or plays only a minor role in the construction of the Russian and Chechen masculinities in the selected films and series.
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Notes on contributors
Erik Vlaeminck
Erik Vlaeminck holds an MA in Eastern European and Slavonic Studies from KU Leuven (Belgium) and an MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies from Leiden University after graduating with Distinction in 2015. He is currently a PhD candidate in Russian at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His doctoral research examines the representation of masculinity in contemporary Russian fiction.