PoSoCoMeS Seminar#31. Legitimating Nationalism: Katie L. Stewart, Guzel Yusupova, Ekaterina Haskins

At this PoSoCoMeS seminar, Katie L. Stewart discusses her book “Legitimating Nationalism: Political Identity in Russia’s Ethnic Republics" (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024) with Guzel Yusupova and Ekaterina V. Haskins.

Book description:

Russia is a large, diverse, and complicated country whose far-flung regions maintain their own histories and cultures, even as President Vladimir Putin increases his political control. Powerful, autocratic regimes still need to establish their legitimacy; in Russia, as elsewhere, developing a compelling national narrative and building a sense of pride and belonging in a national identity is key to maintaining a united nation. It can also legitimate political power when leaders present themselves as the nation’s champions. Putin’s hold thus requires effective nation building— propagating the ever-evolving and often contested story of who, exactly, is Russian and what, exactly, that means.
Even in the current autocratic system, however, Russia’s multiethnic nature and fractured political history mean that not all political symbols work the same way everywhere; not every story finds the same audience in the same way. The message may emanate from Moscow, but regional actors—including local governments, civic organizations, and cultural institutions—have some agency in how they spread the message: some regionalization of identity work is permitted to ensure that Russian national symbols and narratives resonate with people, and to avoid protest. This book investigates how nation building works on the ground through close studies of three of Russia’s ethnic republics: Karelia, Tatarstan, and Buryatia. Understanding how the project of legitimating nationalism, in support of a unified country and specifically Putin’s regime, works in practice offers crucial context in understanding the shape and story of contemporary Russia.

Author:

Katie Stewart is an Associate Professor of Political Science & International Relations at Knox College. Her research and teaching areas include nationalism, symbolic politics, authoritarianism, democratization, and research methods, with a regional focus on Russia and Eastern Europe. Her book, Legitimating Nationalism: Political Identity in Russia's Ethnic Republics, was published with the University of Wisconsin Press in 2024. She has also published with Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, and PONARS Eurasia, and contributed to the edited volume Varieties of Russian Activism: State-Society Contestation in Everyday Life (Indiana University Press, 2023).

Discussants:

Guzel Yusupova is a sociologist of identity politics on post-Soviet Eurasia. She is currently a Humboldt Fellow at Osteuropa-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin. Before coming to Germany Guzel has held academic appointments in the UK, Canada, Sweden, and the Russian Federation. Her research appeared in academic journals such as Post-Soviet Affairs; Europe-Asia Studies; Ethnicities; Nations and Nationalism and others.

Ekaterina V. Haskins (discussant and host): Ekaterina Haskins is Professor of Rhetoric and Visual Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Her research and teaching encompass rhetorical theory and history, public memory, and visual culture. Her recent scholarship investigates the rhetoric and politics of public memory in Russia and post-Soviet countries. Haskins is the author of numerous articles and three monographs. Her most recent book is Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin’s Russia (Penn State University Press, 2024).