My research investigates the activist practices of Russian political migrants during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and how their collective identity is shaped by the context of their host countries. Elucidating the subjectivity of these Russians sheds light on how they understand themselves in relation to the state, as well as how they resist its authoritarianism. Doing so reveals how ordinary citizens dealt with the intense repression of the Russian regime prior to emigrating, as well as how they understand themselves as political migrants and in relation to their host countries and their colonial histories.
Works In Progress
Varieties of Exile: Russian Activism and Emigration during the War in Ukraine (Book project based on dissertation)
This project is based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork from September 2022-May 2023 in Armenia, Georgia, and Latvia, and explores the complex experiences and political subjectivities of Russian political emigrants. I conducted in-depth interviews with 36 Russians from a variety of political and socio-economic backgrounds who emigrated from regions across Russia, as well as ethnographic observation of various protests and other political events in these field sites. Utilizing an ethnographic approach grants explanatory priority to how ‘insiders,’ or those being studied, understand their existence. In this project, I show how Russian political emigrants find community, continue their activism abroad, and understand their own political agency in the rapidly changing and uncertain context of the war in Ukraine. My dissertation gives attention to the everyday forms of activism that political emigrants engage in when efforts to directly impact their home country are futile.
“Putin’s War or Russia’s? How Russian Political Migrants Understand the War in Ukraine” (Article in drafting stage)
I elucidate how different life experiences as well as the context of the country they migrated to shapes the views of Russian political migrants. I demonstrate that being ‘anti-war’ can mean many things–from placing sole responsibility for the war on Putin to believing that all Russian society, including oneself, is guilty. I show that Russian political migrants, while unified in their opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine, vigorously debate each other on what should be done to fight the regime and change Russia, how to engage with host country political issues if at all, and more. My research focuses on everyday people rather than the activities of well-known public figures in exile. Doing so reveals how ordinary citizens dealt with the intense repression of the Russian regime prior to emigrating, as well as how they understand themselves in relation to the state. I also critically examine political migrants’ views on their position as Russians living in countries once forcibly dominated by the Soviet Union.
Nicole M. Daphnis, PhD 