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New Generation of Victors: Narrating the Nation in Russian Presidential Discourse, 2012–2019
- Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization
- Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, The George Washington University
- Volume 28, Number 4, Fall 2020
- pp. 517-540
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, many proposed that this state-generated, ethnically loaded "nationalist boost" enhanced the state's legitimacy by replacing the previous social contract between the Russian state and the people. This article argues for a more nuanced understanding of nationalism in contemporary Russia by asking how exactly the state leadership has portrayed the Russian nation in 2012–2019. Analyzing presidential speeches in this period, the article traces three distinctive but closely interconnected narratives of "Russianness": the narrative of the victorious nation; the narrative of the moral nation; and the narrative of the multinational but ethnically hierarchical nation.