Demobilization Practices in an Authoritarian Context
Mentor
Natalia Savelyeva is a sociologist and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as well as a researcher at the Public Sociology Laboratory. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2016. She has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Indiana University Bloomington, and the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C. Natalia’s research primarily focuses on the violent conflict that began in Ukraine in 2014 and Russian society’s response to the ongoing war. Her articles have been published in numerous international academic journals, as well as in both Russian and international media. She is a co-author of the collective monograph Politics of the Apolitical (2015, in Russian) and a co-editor of the analytical report The War Near and Far (2023, lmverlag).
Project Description
One of the main consequences of the war for Russian society has been the emergence of a new social group: service members, who have taken part in active combat on Ukrainian territory, and their families. Some of the combatants have already been demobilized, sometimes with the assistance of state-provided resources.
There are people in Russia who have to interact with ex-combatants returning to civilian life. In particular, this includes their relatives, spouses, and children. Furthermore, there are employees of helping initiatives who work with the demobilized.
The war is not over yet, but Russian society and the state have already begun to reintegrate ex-combatants. The lab investigates how service members who have returned from the frontline, their relatives, and helping initiatives engage with their experiences and reshape Russian society.
Within the project, participants work on several topics:
- trajectories of demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants,
- state and non-state demobilization initiatives,
- the role of the state in reintegrating ex-combatants,
- the impact of demobilization and state policies toward service members and their families on the families of ex-combatants.