Participants

Victoria Musvik¹; Tatiana Levina³; Alina Parker⁴; Vladimir Ponizovskiy²;  ¹ University of Oxford, UK;  ² Durham University, UK;  ³ Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, KWI, Germany;  ⁴ University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States

Discussion

The idea of this roundtable emerged when several scholars researching such diverse subjects as perestroika grassroot communities, contemporary Russian right-wing conflicting alliances, and the alt-right constructs like “levaki” and “new ethics”, have noticed some unexpected similarities in these groups' social dynamics. We were surprised to notice that modern liberal groups deploy the same hierarchical and exploitative models as right-wing communities they criticise. Then we realized that the divisions within the "liberal" and "patriotic" circles are often similar: both "camps" seem to be brought together by social and political circumstances rather than shared values. Individuals and groups within one "camp" may sometimes be ideologically closer to the other than to the insiders of their own, creating a political left-right confusion in the public sphere.

We will discuss these five key topics:  

Trading Places. Contemporary Russian “liberal” and “patriotic” political identities as products of the botched democratic nation building of the 1990s. Late-perestroika roots of today’s public sphere: were “demokraty” a monolithic group, whom did they represent, and which groups did they form? How did communists become “right-wing” while democrats avoided the “left” label?

Russian Left. What happened to socialist ideas between the 1990s and today and how have contemporary political groups dealt with them? What was the role of the 1991 coup and the 1993 parliamentary crisis in the ousting of “everything left-wing”, splintering of the socialist discourses / identities, and subsequent formation of radically different socialism-inspired left- and right-wing movements?

Unexpected Similarities. Similar processes of fragmentation within the “liberal” and “patriotic” political communities, where the insiders may share aesthetics and points of concern but are divided by their values and goals. 

Forever Excluded. The “Women's Question” in the Russian liberal circle of the last decade. Power structure, harassment and female academics: the adventures of the hierarchy in academia.The sudden agreement: how did the liberal / left join the right in "criticising the 'new ethics'"?

“Take as much sovereignty as you can swallow”. How did the regionalism and local diversity of the early 1990s transform into “the vertical of power”, and how were local groups gradually pushed out of federal politics and media? How did the 1990s declarations of a community of free and equal citizens, or a “Western-like” democracy, result in the (re)construction of a hierarchical empire?