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Soldiers’ wives and mothers are key to Russia’s anti-war movement [1]
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Date: 2023-08
The women in Russia’s military families are posing a subtle but significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s handling of the war in Ukraine by engaging in a form of political activism best described as ‘patriotic dissent’.
When Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022, many expected the mothers of Russia’s soldiers to be at the forefront of anti-war street protests, based on their activism during Moscow’s previous wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Some soldiers’ mothers have expressed opposition to the war and participated in public protests, but for the most part their responses are more complex than straightforward condemnation – or support.
The mothers and wives of Russian servicemen are using patriotic dissent for their political action because they are enmeshed in a complex relationship with the Russian state and its military power, which in turn reflects the fraught relationship that the country’s citizens have with military service.
On paper, Russia recruits its armed forces via a combination of universal male conscription (12 months, obligatory for all men aged 18-27) and voluntary service. In practice, conscription has been easy to evade if the conscript or his family have the means to pay a bribe, the political connections to gain an exemption or the motivation to exploit legal loopholes that will allow him to pursue other, more attractive opportunities. The partial mobilisation announced in September 2022 did not change this established pattern of military recruitment.
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The men most keen to join up are predominantly from areas of severe economic deprivation or from the most disadvantaged groups of the population, including former or current prisoners. The army is seen as an alternative to poverty or crime; it offers a steady income and the prospect of an honourable career. Further, the connection between masculinity, patriotism and military service – largely discredited among the country’s urban middle class – continues to hold sway in these communities.
Our research into the responses of the mothers and wives of Russia’s soldiers to the war in Ukraine is based on in-depth analysis of Russian state-controlled newspapers (both national and regional) and Russian independent digital media (Meduza and Mediazona). It reveals that while these women are heavily dependent upon the state, they are not silent, passive figures who unquestioningly accept the sacrifice of their male relatives to injury or death.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-ukraine-anti-war-movement-military-women-mothers-wives/
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