Resilience in the face of precarity is the theme of a popular myth of the Russian nation according to which Russia’s history proceeds as an unending series of catastrophes borne by its people.

This myth originates partly in Slavophile ideas of the Russian people as held back by its state, and partly in the framing of Russia and the USSR as irrevocably at odds with a hostile West. In explaining the war in Ukraine to the public, Putin has continued to exploit the latter interpretation to reaffirm a statist narrative in which Russia’s strength lies in its people’s capacity to overcome existential threats by defending the state. In this way, the myth is interlinked with a victimhood nationalism, and plays into the politics of memory. At the same time, the alternative idea of the nation’s resilience to the actions of a repressive state is given new life in the work of activists highlighting past and present injustices. In this context, how is the myth of Russia’s resilience interpreted and used by ordinary people? And what are the implications of this for Russian nation building?

This talk, with Dr Leila Wilmers, will address these questions using an engaged ideology approach to nationalism that focuses on bottom-up agency.

The talk will take place in Bush House (S), room 2.03.

SPEAKER

Leila Wilmers is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. Her research concerns questions of nationalism, identity and collective memory. In exploring these topics, she builds on earlier professional experience in the NGO sector in Russia, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. She is particularly interested in the interaction of ideology and everyday life in comparative perspective, and the roles of place and local politics in the ways nations and nationalism are reproduced. She is currently working on a monograph on local narratives of the nation in Russia, based on fieldwork she conducted in the cities of Kazan and Ekaterinburg in 2017-18. Leila has received research funding awards from the UK Royal Geographical Society and the Institute for Armenian Studies, University of Southern California, and her articles have been published in the journals Ethnic and Racial Studies, Ethnicities and Nationalities Papers. Leila teaches an undergraduate course on Nationalism and Identity.