New Generation of Victors: Narrating the Nation in Russian Presidential Discourse, 2012–2019

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.