Authors

Charlie Walker¹;  ¹ University of Southampton, UK

Discussion

Throughout the Soviet period working-class men were subjected to governmentalizing narratives that attempted to shape them into the right kind of worker-citizen (Ashwin 2000). In the early post-Soviet period, they were exposed to the free play of market forces, which dovetailed with a fervent neoconservatism and calls for the return of ‘real men’ (Walker 2022). More recently, the Putin era has attempted to co-opt working-class men into a neo-imperialist project in which they are to sacrifice themselves for the motherland (Yusupova 2023). This paper draws on ethnographic research with working-class young and middle-aged men in different parts of Russia (2004-present) to examine how they have navigated these different governmentalities. It draws on approaches from relational sociology to argue that, while all of these ways of shaping masculinity have some purchase on the men in the research, the most prominent form of subjectivity amongst them is one which appeals to moral sentiments circulating in wider society. Amidst failed attempts at ‘work on the self’ and pragmatic responses to the war, the men are able to mobilise resources rooted in their class and gender location to seek recognition as moral subjects, thereby rising above their positioning as abject losers or passive dupes. The paper thus points to the ability of working-class men to find autonomy and value outside of the dominant logics of neoliberalism and Putinism, while at the same time being exploited by both.