Political Emotion

Abstract

Emotions played a key role in the mass rallies that tookplace in Moscow and other major Russian cities in 2011–13. A comparison between the emotions expressed in anti-government and pro-government rallies shows that participants shared similar views on social order and social justice. However, similar emotions articulated in different locations were imbued with different tonalities and rhetoric. The grassroots horizontal cooperation at the civil society rallies opened up space for crisscrossing communication and interaction among demonstrators, which created vivid, self-organized emotions. The vertical structure of mobilization at the progovernment rallies, which was based on coercion, impeded free communication among its participants, closing off communication in the space of labor collectives, which hindered the production of emotions “from below” and prevented the communication of emotional spontaneity: the protesters could only adopt the emotions broadcast from the stage.

Keywords::

• Russia
• popular protests
• emotions
• civil society

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2014 “Neprikosnovennyi zapas.” “Politicheskie emotsii: rossiiskie mitingi 2011–2013 godov,” Neprikosnovennyi zapas, 2014, no. 5, pp. 117–32. Translated by Brad Damaré. Alexandrina Vladimirovna Van'ke (b. 1986) is a sociologist and instructor in the Department of Sociology, Russian State Academic University for Humanities.

^1. M. Gabowitsch [Gabovich], Putin kaputt!? Russlands neue Protestkultur (Berlin: Suhrkampf Verlag, 2013), p. 71.

^2. Ibid., p. 76.

^3. G. Pavlovskii [Pavlovsky], “Vlasti, emotsii i protest v Rossii,” Gefter-ru, July 1, 2014 (http://gefter.ru/archive/12661).

^4. Ibid.

^5. Ibid.

^6. H. Flam, “Introduction,” in Emotions and Social Movements, [ed. H. Flam and D. King] (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 19–20.

^7. R. Eyerman, “How Social Movements Move: Emotions and Social Movements,” in [Flam and King], Emotions and Social Movements, pp. 42–43; see also H. Flam, Soziologie der Emotionen (Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft), p. 252.

^8. J. Goodwin, J. Jasper, and F. Polletta, eds., Passionate Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).

^9. P. Virno, Grammatika mnozhestvennosti: k analizu form sovremennoi zhizni (Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2013), pp. 10, 17.

^10. Ia. Plamper, “Emotsii v russkoi istorii,” in Rossiiskaia imperiia chuvstv: podkhody k kul'turnoi istorii emotsii (Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2010), pp. 15, 17; Flam, Soziologie, pp. 127–28.

^11. Flam, Soziologie, pp. 297–98; É. Neveu, Sociologie des mouvements sociaux (Paris: La Decouverte, 2011), pp. 246–48.

^12. E. Gofman, Ritual vzaimodeistviia: Ocherki povedeniia litsom k litsu (Moscow: Smysl, 2009); G. Yang, “Emotional Events and the Transformation of Collective Actions: The Chinese Student Movement,” in [Flam and King], Emotions and Social Movements, p. 79.

^13. G. Debord, “Theorie de la derive,” Internationale situationniste, 1956, no. 2, pp. 19–23.

^14. The NII Mitingov activists who took part at various times in the collection and compilation of empirical materials were Alan Amerkhanov, Aleksandr Bikbov, Alexandrina Van'ke, Kseniia Vin'kova, Anna Grigor'eva, Svetlana Erpyleva, Anastasiia Kal'k, Karin Kleman, Georgii Konovalov, El'vira Kul'chitskaia, Pavel Mitenko, Ol'ga Nikolaeva, Mariia Petrukhina, Egor Sokolov, Irina Surkichanova, Arsenii Sysoev, Denis Tailakov, Ekaternia Tarnovskaia, Aleksandr Tropin, Aleksanr Fudin, and Dar'ia Shafrina. This list was provided in A. Bikbov, “Metodologiia issledovaniia ‘vnezapnogo’ ulichnogo aktivizma (rossiiskie mitingi i ulichnye lageria, dekabr' 2011–iiun' 2012),” Laboratorium, 2012, no. 2, p. 132.

^15. Gabowitsch, Putin kaputt!? p. 241.

^16. M. Agapov, “Perekhvat protesta: freim-analiticheskoe issledovanie publichnoi aktsii,” Sotsiologiia vlasti, 2013, no. 4, p. 50.

^17. Ibid., pp. 52, 53.

^18. M. Hallwachs, “L'expression des emotions et la societe,” in Exchanges sociologiques (Paris: Centre de documentation universitaire, 1947).

^19. Flam, Soziologie, pp. 62–63; A.R. Hochschild, “Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure Author,” American Journal of Sociology, 1979, no. 3(85), p. 561.

^20. For more, see the Web site of Komiteta 6 maia (http://6may.org).

^21. For more on the “friendly faces of the protest,” see A. Van'ke, “Kollektivnoe telo protesta,” Sotsiologiia vlasti, 2013, no. 4, p. 91.

^22. H. Flam, “Emotion's Map: A Research Agenda,” in [Flam and King], Emotions and Social Movements, p. 27.

^23. “Time is passing, it's already 3 a.m., the number of spectators is constantly growing, and I'm filled with rage.” Quoted in I. Berliand and M. Stupakova, eds., Razgnevannye nabliudateli: Fal'sifikatsii parlamentskikh vyborov glazami ochevidtsev (Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2012), p. 187.

^24. “Sotsiolog Aleksandr Bikbov: protestnoe dvizhenie radikaliziruetsia,” Radio Svoboda, May 17, 2012 (www.svoboda.org/content/article/24584580.html).

^25. For example, one respondent from the pro-Putin rally, in response to the interviewer's question about whether he was going to continue to participate in these kinds of actions, answered, “Absolutely. If that Bolotnaya Square group leaves, we will, too” (male, scholar and radiophysicist, around eighty years old, Luzhniki Stadium, February 23, 2012).

^26. For more on this, see A. Amerkhanov, A. Van'ke, G. Konovalov, and A. Fudin, “Psikhogeografiia mitingov, ili Kak prostranstvo sozdaet emotsii,” Russkii zhurnal, March 13, 2012 (http://russ.ru/pole/Psihogeografiya-mitingov).

^27. These conclusions are based on observations and materials from on-the-street interviews.

^28. D. Gromov, “Zimnee protivostoianie 2011–2012 gg: dve taktiki mobilizatsii i samoprezentatsii,” Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 2013, no. 2, p. 111.

^29. Ibid.

^30. Ibid.

^31. See, for example, D. Mel'nikov, “Dve Rossii,” Vesti nedeli, March 5, 2012 (http://vesti.ru/news?id = 31864).

^32. A. Kal'k, “‘Kreativnaia’ Bolotnaia i ‘narodnaia’ Poklonnaia: vizual'nyi riad mitingov v rossiiskikh SMI,” Laboratorium, 2012, vol. 2, p. 164.

^33. A. Bikbov, “NII mitingov: voiny ‘Bolotnoi’ i ‘Poklonnoi’ ne budet,” Slon.ru, February 28, 2012 (http://slon.ru/russia/nii_mitingov_voyny_bolotnoy_i_poklonnoy_ne_budet-758125.xhtml).

^34. For more on this, see Mischa Gabowitsch's speech, “The Cognitive and Emotional Space of Protest: Russia, 2011–13” (www.youtube.com/watch?v-FINxEDF8nTI).

^35. Gabowitsch, Putin kaputt!? p. 70.

^36. Ibid.

^37. “Vystuplenie Vladimira Putina na mitinge v Luzhnikakh,” RIA novosti, February 23, 2012 (http://ria.ru/vybor2012_putin/20120223/572995366.html).

^38. Gabowitsch, Putin kaputt!? pp. 42, 71.