Description
This paper investigates the interplay between historical myths, identity and foreign policy in Russia. Taking as its starting point cultural vignettes that illustrate key myths about Russian identity, the paper presents in-depth empirical analysis of how these myths have developed through twenty years’ worth of official discourse, whilst tracing their origins back farther still. Such top-down expositions are then contextualised with reference to everyday expressions of agreement and resistance. The paper draws into sharp relief the tensions and contradictions underlying Russia’s militarised conceptions of identity, and the ways in which these have been manifested in Russian foreign policy. Not only did these undermine human rights before the invasion of Ukraine, but they have contributed to Russian war crimes in its aftermath.
The analysis shows how on one hand, the Russian regime has increasingly subsumed culture and information within its approach to security and foreign policy misadventures over the last decade. Yet at the same time, both culture and information have become more contingent than ever before on a public sphere that the Russian regime cannot control, and has comparatively little mastery in. This opens up significant new spaces for disruption and resistance, which expand the arena for human agency whilst also complicating the picture for human rights.
