Nashi, Youth Voluntarism, and Potemkin NGOs: Making Sense of Civil Society in Post-Soviet Russia

Hemment, Julie

doi:10.1017/s0037677900013607

Cited by 85 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The literature has argued that NGO dependence on foreign aid (Howell and Pearce,15 2001, Hemment, 2012) as well as funding from national or local governments (Alcock andKendall, 2011, Lewis, 2005) leads to loss of independence and voice. On the ground, some of our activist respondents held that many or most NGOs are just motivated by a desire to get funding, to live well.…”

Section: The Critique Of Ngos: "This Is a Kind Of Civil Society Businmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs

Glasius

Ishkanian

2014

Voluntas

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Based on research conducted in Athens, Cairo, London and Yerevan the article analyses the relationship between activists engaged in street protests or direct action since 2011 and NGOs. It examines how activists relate to NGOs and whether it is possible to do sustained activism to bring about social change without becoming part of a 'civil society industry'. The article argues that while at first glance NGOs seem disconnected from recent street activism, and activists distance themselves from NGOs, the situation is more complicated than meets the eye. It contends that the boundaries between the formal NGOs and informal groups of activists is blurred and there is much cross-over and collaboration. The article demonstrates and seeks to explain this phenomenon, which we call surreptitious symbiosis, from the micro-perspective of individual activists and NGO staff. Finally, we discuss whether this surreptitious symbiosis can be sustained and sketch three scenarios for the future.

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Section: The Critique Of Ngos: "This Is a Kind Of Civil Society Businmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs

Glasius

Ishkanian

2014

Voluntas

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“…However, even though youth have played an important role in many political struggles, for instance in the 'Color Revolutions' in Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union countries (Kuzio 2006;Laverty 2008a), youth political activism in Russia has attracted little attention until very recently (However, see Pilkington 2002;Omel'chenko 2005). The existing studies on youth political activism in Russia have mainly dealt with the pro-Kremlin youth movements, such as the Nashi (Atwal 2009;Lassila 2011a;Lassila 2007;Blum 2006;Hemment 2009), while youth opposition activism has been studied less thoroughly (however, see Gromov 2009a;Loskutova 2008;Horvath 2011;Robertson 2009;Sperling 2012;Lyytikäinen 2011;. My research contributes to this discussion by showing how youth are also actively organizing against the current government and how Russian oppositional youth activist practices are diverse and constantly evolving.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…According to Mendelson and Glenn (2002), in the early 2000s, the US had already invested 133 million dollars in the development of the Russian NGO sector and the European Union had funded the Russian organizations with 272 million dollars. (See also McIntosh Sundstrom 2006;Hemment 2007). My case study, the Oborona Movement, is an example of the western support to Russian civil society; its founding and ideological base can be traced back to a German liberal organization, the Friedrich Neumann Foundation, which played a central role in the creation of the movement (see section 3.5).…”

Section: 'Bringing' Democracy To Russia?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The key themes of these studies are state-civil society relations (Evans, Henry, and Sundstrom 2006;Chebankova 2013;Kulmala 2013;Richter 2009a;Richter 2009b;S. White 2008), western funding of Russian civil society initiatives (Henderson 2003;McIntosh Sundstrom 2006), women's NGOs and the role of gender in democratization (Kay 2000;Hemment 2007;Salmenniemi 2008), and recently, how the Internet and new technologies shape activism (Lonkila 2012;Lonkila 2008). However, even though youth have played an important role in many political struggles, for instance in the 'Color Revolutions' in Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union countries (Kuzio 2006;Laverty 2008a), youth political activism in Russia has attracted little attention until very recently (However, see Pilkington 2002;Omel'chenko 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Performing Political Opposition in Russia

Lyytikäinen¹

2016

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Russian civil society is often described as weak and Russians as politically apathetic. However, as a surprise for many, tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of Moscow to protest the fraud in the parliamentary elections in December 2011. Nevertheless, this 'awakening' did not last for long as Vladimir Putin took hold of the Presidency again in 2012. Since then, the Russian State Duma has passed new legislation to restrict civic and political activism. This, together with the fragmentation of the opposition movement, has hindered large-scale and sustained mobilization against the government. In 2013, the number of protests has plummeted when the risks of demonstrating are high and the benefits to participate in political activism appear non-existent.Why is it impossible for the Russian opposition to find a common voice and to sustain contentious action? This book analyzes how political opportunities and restrictions in contemporary Russia have affected the opposition activists' activities at the grassroots level. The book examines Russian civil society, contemporary activist strategies, and democratization from the perspective of the young activists participating in the liberal youth movement Oborona (Defense) in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Before its dissolution in 2011, Oborona was an active participant in the Russian opposition movement, and thus it is an interesting case study of the living activist traditions in Russia.The research illustrates how the Soviet continuities and liberal ideas are entangled in Russian political activism to create new post-socialist political identities and practices. In Russia, the group of dissenters is small, and the political elite in power do not leave much room for voices of dissent in order for the opposition to grow and diverge. However, the study argues that one of the reasons of Oborona's demise came from inside the movement: The group's solidarity was based on personal ties instead of political connectedness. Furthermore, the movement suffered from the lack of common ideological goals and leader-centeredness. The research suggests that these problems can be found in Russia's liberal opposition in general and explain why it is inefficient to mobilize large amounts of people for public demonstrations and to sustain protests.The research draws on sociological theories on identities, social performance, and politicization as well as class, gender and generation studies. The data is derived from thematic interviews and ABSTRACTThis book examines Russian civil society and democratization from the perspective of the oppositional youth activists in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It takes the Russian youth movement Oborona (Defense) as its case study. Before its dissolution in 2011, the movement was an active participant in the 'non-systemic' opposition, and thus it is an interesting case study of the 'actually existing' activist traditions in Russia. The book analyses how youth activists use the tools applicable in today's Russia to resist and reinterpret the cultura...

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“…A particularly pertinent example is Russia's GONGOs (government-organised non-governmental organisations). Julie Hemment (2012) argues that one of Russia's main GONGOs, the pro-Kremlin Nashi movement, which is often characterised as a form of official indoctrination of youth akin to the Soviet komsomol or an "ersatz social movement" (Robertson 2010, 28), actually plays (albeit only fitfully) a role in promoting more civic forms of social activity (such as volunteer work, and environmental and anticorruption campaigns). Accordingly, Nashi paradoxically resembles some of the internationally sponsored NGOs that preceded it, and which it ostensibly opposes.…”

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confidence: 99%

State–society relations in contemporary Russia: new forms of political and social contention

Cheskin

March

2015

East European Politics

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Much existing analysis of Russian state-society relations focuses on public, active forms of contention such as the "opposition" and protest movements. There is need for a more holistic perspective which adds study of a range of overt, "co-opted", and hidden forms of interaction to this focus on public contention. A theoretical and empirical basis for understanding state-society relations in today's Russia involves broadening the concept of "contentious politics" to include models of "consentful" as well as "dissentful" contention. A diffused model of contentious politics can situate claim-making along the axes of consentful and dissentful motivations, and compliant and contentious behaviours.Keywords: Russia; contentious politics; protest; opposition; civil society Prior to the contested 2011-2012 elections in Russia, many commentators held the view that Russian society did not pose an existential threat to the country's political status quo (Gel'man 2013, 6). While sporadic protests had occurred before 2011, they had been largely confined to specific geographic areas and tended to focus on relatively narrow issues (Evans 2012; Koesel and Bunce 2012, 412). Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the vibrant street protests after the elections caught most analysts by surprise (Volkov 2012, 55). Since then, there has been a compensatory focus on new forms of opposition and public protest, evidence of instability within the Putin regime and a (partial) movement away from the perception of the Russian state as an efficiently operating presidential vertikal (e.g. Monaghan 2012; Greene 2013; Judah 2013).Much of the existing analysis, however, continues to focus on public, active forms of contention such as the "opposition" and social, issue-based movements that mobilise public protest (e.g. Koesel and Bunce 2012;Robertson 2013;White 2013;Ross 2015). These accounts provide a vitally important perspective on the interactions between state and society in contemporary Russia. However, as Evans (2012, 234) notes, "We should not expect that the study of groups in Russia that carry out public protests against the decisions of those in authority can give us a comprehensive understanding of Russian civil society". Chebankova (2015, 244) Vol. 31, No. 3, 261-273, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2015 Downloaded by [University of Glasgow] at 09:34 26 August 2015 arguing that researchers "tend to confine their analysis to the visible side of mobilisation, thus ignoring its latent dimensions". This special issue therefore joins a growing body of works that seek to switch the analytical lens more fully from state-centric analyses focusing on the mechanics of the Putinite presidential system towards the emergent Russian politics "from below". Such analyses (e.g. Beznosova and Sundstrom 2009; Chebankova 2009; Robertson 2010; Gladarev and Lonkila 2013) make several common arguments: (a) there has long been greater political contention in post-Soviet Russia than many acknowledge; (b) such contention is often more marked at loc...

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Nashi, Youth Voluntarism, and Potemkin NGOs: Making Sense of Civil Society in Post-Soviet Russia

Cited by 85 publications

References 37 publications

Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs

Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs

Performing Political Opposition in Russia

State–society relations in contemporary Russia: new forms of political and social contention

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