Forging Frontline Russians

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6180956
AutoresHåvard Bækken (0000-0002-8961-3078, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Oslo, Norway, autor de correspondencia)
Año2025
Volumen58
Número1
Páginas28-52
Fecha de publicación2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCommunist and Post-Communist Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0967-067X • E-ISSN: 1873-6920
EditorialUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/cpcs.2024.2110253
OpenAlexW4396941692
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas18

This article considers efforts by the de facto authorities of non-governmental-controlled areas (NGCAs) of eastern Ukraine to shape regional identity from 2014 through 2021. It focuses on the paradoxes of top-down identity construction in an environment of mixed popular sentiments, fluid borders, and an uncertain political future. It argues that nascent identity construction projects in the NGCAs were often inconsistent and unclear, emphasizing different layers of “candidate Fatherlands,” be it the individual self-declared republics, the Donbas, Novorossiia, the Russian Federation, or a broader Russian civilization. While internally inconsistent and contradictive, however, the various initiatives often took antemurale political myths as a point of departure. These myths spin around the idea that regional inhabitants constitute a particular brand of “frontline Russians”—hardened warriors protecting a western outpost of the Russian civilization. Even as “candidate Fatherlands” came and went, this ideational core manifested not only in policy and aloof declarations, but also in a persistent growth of so-called military-patriotic education in the region. Militarized ideas of political identity became mainstream within the occupied areas—reflecting both influences from Russia and the ongoing war

Forging · Political science · Engineering · European Politics and Security · Healthcare, Law, Governance, and Management Studies · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Mechanical Engineering