Do Russians Support the War? Ethnographic Insights from Inside the Aggressor

Content

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, experts have debated the role of Russian society in the war. Are the poll numbers reflecting support for the war among the Russian population accurate? Why are there so few protests inside Russia? Should blame be placed on the Russian people or solely on Putin?

The Public Sociology Laboratory, an independent group of researchers, has collected more than 500 sociological interviews with a diverse range of individuals, including “apolitical” Russians, war supporters and opponents, volunteers and activists, potential conscripts, and relatives of military personnel seeking to bring their loved ones home. Additionally, the research includes over 700 pages of ethnographic observations from multiple regions of Russia.

This presentation by Natalia Savelyeva, University of Wisconsin-Madison, draws on this extensive data and explores how ordinary Russians perceive the war, shedding light on the complexities of public opinion, political engagement, and societal responses to the ongoing conflict.

About the Speaker

Natalia Savelyeva is a Future Russia Fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). She is a sociologist who has been working as a researcher with the Public Sociology Laboratory of the Centre for Independent Social Research in St. Petersburg, Russia, and recently joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her current scholarship explores multiple themes, including the violent conflict that began in Ukraine in 2014.
 

This event is co-sponsored by the Ethnography Collective and the Russian, Eurasian, and Polish Studies Program.