Russia in Search of an Identity

The first speaker, Gudrun Persson, Deputy Research Director at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), focused on how the Russian state appropriates the past in building Russia`s identity.

Persson highlighted that Russia`s authorities draw on the history of both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and patriotic education, the armed forces and the Russian Orthodox Church serve as main instruments of projecting the desired self-image of Russia and the Russians today.  She mentioned inter alia the re-establishment of the cadet corps (now also being introduced in Crimea) and re-foundation of the Russian Historical Society and the Russian Military History Society - the institutions which were originally established in imperial Russia. 

At the same time, Persson argued, Russian authorities` are combating the falsifications of history primarily during the Soviet Union era, and especially the years of the Second World War. The scholar stressed that Russia`s identity formation by the authorities has a significant national security dimension. This is exemplified by the single history textbook project being cherished by the Russian leadership in recent years. Yet the debates surrounding this textbook, Persson noted, illustrate a conflict between the intentions of the political leadership and the ideas of historians. 

The scholar pointed out that the mentioned activities by Russian authorities on creating Russia`s national identity are likely to undermine the stability of the country in the long run. 

The presentation by Carolina Vendil-Pallin, Deputy Research Director at FOI, examined the views in the Russian society relating to political self-image.

Based on the Levada Center opinion polls, Vendil-Pallin focused on the change in attitudes among different social groups (in terms of age, income, city vs. village) in Russia from the mid-1990s to the present through the prism of modernization theory. 

Thus, unlike a fairly common focus on certain politicians or parties, her research aimed to reveal the value systems of the Russians and how it has changed in certain socio-economic conditions. She demonstrated that, due to various differences among the population, one can hardly talk about a consensus on the rights of an individual. Yet, in the near future human rights are unlikely to be among the top positions in this regard, Vendil-Pallin said.

The polls indicate the general trend is a conservative one, and Russian government policies seem to be responding to this fact. Vendil-Pallin also noted, although the state is performing badly according to the opinion polls, the recent events in Ukraine has increased support for the current political leadership. 

Vendil-Pallin concluded, that important political values of a modern polity are not well-embedded in the Russian society, however, the process of their appropriation might be possible in the longer term. 

The seminar was the fourth in a seminar series on Russian domestic politics organized in cooperation with the Uppsala Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (UCRS).

By: Victoria Vasilenko, UI visiting researcher