E-Thesis 1569 views 634 downloads
Russia on a Throne of Bayonets: Militarisation without the Military in Yeltsin’s Russia, 1990-2000 / ALLYSON EDWARDS
Swansea University Author: ALLYSON EDWARDS
-
PDF | Redacted version - open access
Copyright: The author, Allyson S. Edwards, 2021.
Download (7.35MB)
DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.58694
Abstract
Scholars of Boris Yeltsin’s Russia argue that it was a period of demilitarisation. Research largely focuses on militarisation in terms of its physical dimensions and by investigating subjects, individuals and institutions with a direct link to the military. These scholars instead attribute the succe...
| Published: |
Swansea
2021
|
|---|---|
| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Sheehan, Michael ; Collins, Alan ; Miakinkov, Eugene |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58694 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Abstract: |
Scholars of Boris Yeltsin’s Russia argue that it was a period of demilitarisation. Research largely focuses on militarisation in terms of its physical dimensions and by investigating subjects, individuals and institutions with a direct link to the military. These scholars instead attribute the success of Russian militarism in the post-Soviet period to Vladimir Putin. However, this is not entirely the case. This thesis challenges the assumption that the collapse of the Soviet Union constituted a break in the militarisation of society, arguing that the focus of current literature is too narrow to provide a comprehensive understanding of Russian militarism at this time. Instead, the research investigates Russian militarisation during the 1990s through a cultural lens by examining the prominent discourses across four societal domains: media, education; social welfare; and commemoration. Two discourses of a militaristic nature prevailed, including the moral obligation and civic duty of Russian people to protect the fatherland, and Russia as a besieged fortress. These narratives underpin Russian identity and have contributed towards the survival of Russian militarism beyond regime change. The thesis examines political documents, including laws, notes and letters, from the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Yeltsin Centre, Russian newspapers and Russian school historical textbooks from the Russian State Library to answer the following questions: what top-down mechanisms militarise society? What discourses are prominent in the four societal domains and in what way do they contribute towards the militarisation of society? How do the discourses within the different societal domains fit into (and add to) current literature on the state of militarism and militarisation in Post-Soviet Russia? The thesis found that the rituals of the Putin era were rooted in Yeltsin’s Russia, and that through a cultural lens, societal militarisation can be seen to persist without a strong military apparatus. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: |
A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis due to copyright restrictions.ORCiD identifier https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4679-4219 |
| Keywords: |
militarism, Russia, Yeltsin, culture, media, commemoration, veterans, education |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |