SOMO #5

Denman, Gregory. “Women’s Movements Against Collective Male Violence,” MS Thesis, Kansas State University, 2006.

Denman’s thesis analyzes and compares 4 different women’s movements and their strategies against militaristic violence. He argues that above all, the CSM strived to remain visible. Hunger strikes, marches, and protests all contributed to keeping the CSM relevant and in the news. These mothers also often carried or wore pictures of their dead or missing sons (something I’ve seen many Gold Star Mothers do as well). All of this was done to make the war feel more tangible and unavoidable in daily life. What I’d like to find out is if SOMO over-saturated society with their demonstrations.

Denman also addresses some of the discrepancies between statistical information provided by the CSM versus the military reports. In the late 1990s, the CSM reported that 40,000 soldiers deserted the military due to hazing, whereas the military argued it was only 20-30% of that number (this does lead to curiosity about what other reasons the 70-80% deserted for). The CSM also claimed twice the amount of casualties in the first Chechen war than the military reported. The family of a “missing” rather than dead soldier would not receive financial compensation for their loss. 

Peter D. Waisberg, « The Duty to Serve and the Right to Choose: The Contested Nature of Alternative Civilian Service in the Russian Federation », The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies [Online], Issue 1 | 2004, http://pipss.revues.org/224

Waisberg analyzes how civil organizations participated in public discussions of instituting alternative service, which seemed to be a common unifying factor among these organizations. Waisberg makes two observations that stand out-

1. SOMO “groups saw alternative service as the means to an end, rather than an end in itself.” This is an important distinction in progressive politics, and demonstrates the more long-term strategic planning of SOMO. In progressive politics it's often easy to be appeased by small successes, yet this is a dangerous approach because it can halt momentum of a movement. 

2. Public discussions exhibited a “complete lack of discussion of what constitutes religious freedom and freedom of conscience.” Given the widespread use of technical and legal language employed by SOMO, it is surprising that these terms were not more specifically defined. If SOMO wanted to shift patriotism to meaning upholding the rule of law, why leave anything ambiguously defined?

Sperling, Valerie. “The last refuge of a scoundrel: patriotism, militarism and the Russian National Ideal,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 9, Is. 2. April 2003.

Sperling argues the greatest strength of the CSM is its ability to instill doubt in society concerning the military.

Her article also critically explores different avenues of patriotism. Though the CSM sought to re-constitute the meaning of patriotism, the traditional form was very much entrenched in society. It’s important to note that that SOMO and the military shared the same end goal- honor and pride in the country. Even though they pursued quite different strategies to achieve that goal, it can be quite difficult to change minds when your approach is to change means to the same end.

The CSM wanted to shift sources of national pride from the military to Russia’s political institutions. They argued that upholding rule of law and promotion of human rights would be better standards to measure national honor. This approach, unfortunately, is what caused many to perceive the CSM as anti-military, instead of just pro-reform. 

Eichler, Maya. “Militarized Masculinity and State Leadership in the Russian-Chechen Wars,” in Militarizing Men: Gender, Conscription, and War in Post-Soviet Russia.

This chapter of Eichler’s book seeks to explain how the Russian government tried to instill a militarized form of patriotism to justify military intervention.

I’m continually interested by how the government and SOMO both seemed to prioritize the legal/technical aspect as justification for their respective goals. Yeltsin appealed to the constitution as why Russian soldiers needed to defend the unity of Russia, as well as playing up the theme of crime and lawlessness in the region. At least publicly, the operation was justified by linking the Dudaev regime to criminal acts. Similarly, SOMO often claimed that the military operation violated the new constitution, partly because alternative service was largely not enforced or accessible and partly because of the lack of transparency concerning the validity of the operation. Regardless, it’s fascinating that both sides focused on the law as their main argument against each other.

The ethnic and religious dimensions of modern war also play a huge part in opposition movements. Eichler wrote that Yeltsin tried to distinguish the military operation from an action directed toward Muslims. Wagnsson’s dissertation addressed the seemingly lack of ethnic hatred on behalf of Russians toward Chechens, and Zdavomyslova to some extent talked about this- but the most direct correlation I can find between SOMO and the Chechen ethnicity is SOMO’s concept of universal motherhood. In this sense, SOMO transcended ethnic divisions in favor of gendered divisions. They argued that mothers are mothers, independent of their ethnicity. I have not found out how this message was received by society. I’d like to find out to what extent terrorism has been conflated to a specific ethnicity in Russia, and how this conflation has been dealt with by SOMO.

Though my research primarily focuses on the first Chechen war, the interim time period is telling of the endurance of SOMO influence. By 1999, the “fear of terrorism helped justify the need for masculinized-militarized protection and strong leadership, and generated support for the military campaign and for Putin as a leader.” Vulnerability persuaded the public to support a figure they believed would restore Russia’s status and diminish (perceived) threats. Of course, no civil organization can bear the weight of removing societal fear of death/violence, but I’m left to wonder if a strategy that did not include a direct discussion of the dangers of societal vulnerability could have any lasting effect. It seems that regardless of the technical changes made in the military (ie- ending conscription, changing term limits, etc), a society driven by vulnerability is one tolerating (accepting? encouraging?) military adventurism.

“The Societal Crisis of Militarized Masculinity.”

Re-thinking and re-constituting gender roles are major themes in Post-Soviet Russia. This chapter discussed the feminization of men in the military via dedovshchina. Hazing was a means to force new conscripts to perform menial tasks overwhelmingly associated with womanhood. Eichler writes that “enduring their feminization is a phase that conscripts must pass through on their way to achieving ‘manhood.’”  It’s no surprise here that womanhood was demeaned, but it is interesting that experiencing the tasks of womanhood was seen as a pre-requisite to masculinity. The fact that the dedy called new/weak conscripts sestri does demonstrate an active gendered aspect of dedovshchina.

The relation to SOMO-

So much of SOMO’s strategy relied on promotion of traditional gender roles. It seems true that to many SOMO participants, these roles served as a source of empowerment through the image of the strong, heroic mother protecting her children. However, this empowerment seems restricted to the public image of the mother, while not addressing (ignoring?) the private role of the mother; the mother who is expected to cook and clean and be confined to menial tasks. It’s concerning that SOMO put so much stock in the paramount importance of motherhood without (at least I have not read of) critically interrogating the highly gendered nature of the phenomenon they were trying to eradicate.

At the same time, it’s often noted that draft evaders did not receive significant public scorn for their actions. They were not feminized for not wanting to fight. Being able to evade the draft more often carried a class association than it did a gendered one.

Overall comments/conclusions

My goal was to discover how SOMO uniquely impacted civil society in the 1990s. Above all, it seems exposure was their primary success. I'm still critically analyzing the influence/representation distinction to determine how SOMO acted as both a mouthpiece of society, and the agent filling in the words.

Zdravomyslova makes compelling arguments that SOMO taught struggling mothers the language of the law, even if it couldn't teach many mothers to be public about their opposition. Vallance supports this claim, and argues that if nothing else, SOMO educated mothers and young men about their legal rights.

What a wonderful opportunity to complete this research. There is still so much to be discovered about the public/private dichotomy and its relation to the military, and I look forward to continuing this research.