TY - JOUR

T1 - The Symbol of the Motherland in the Legitimation and Delegitimation of Power in Contemporary Russia

AU - Riabov, Oleg

N1 - Funding Information: This article was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (15-03-00010) and the Russian Science Foundation (18-18-00233). Publisher Copyright: © Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/7/1

Y1 - 2020/7/1

N2 - The article dwells upon the use of the symbol of the Motherland in the legitimation and delegitimation of power. The Motherland symbolizes the matters that are essential for legitimacy-seeking: the unity of Russia, its territory and sacredness of its borders, the most important events of its history, the authentic Russianness, and multi-ethnic peace in the country. The author argues that the Motherland serves as an important factor of the legitimation of power in contemporary Russia, which allows the authorities to have high popularity both in domestic and foreign policies. This symbol is also actively exploited by the opposition; one mode of the delegitimation of power through using the symbol of Motherland (the populist mode) implies the symbolic struggle for possessing this symbol, or for the right to speak on behalf of the Motherland, while another one (the liberal mode) implies the desacralization of the Motherland and deconstruction of the practices of employing the symbol by the authorities.

AB - The article dwells upon the use of the symbol of the Motherland in the legitimation and delegitimation of power. The Motherland symbolizes the matters that are essential for legitimacy-seeking: the unity of Russia, its territory and sacredness of its borders, the most important events of its history, the authentic Russianness, and multi-ethnic peace in the country. The author argues that the Motherland serves as an important factor of the legitimation of power in contemporary Russia, which allows the authorities to have high popularity both in domestic and foreign policies. This symbol is also actively exploited by the opposition; one mode of the delegitimation of power through using the symbol of Motherland (the populist mode) implies the symbolic struggle for possessing this symbol, or for the right to speak on behalf of the Motherland, while another one (the liberal mode) implies the desacralization of the Motherland and deconstruction of the practices of employing the symbol by the authorities.

KW - contemporary Russian politics

KW - legitimization of power

KW - political symbols

KW - Russian nationalism

KW - symbol of the Motherland

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094807218&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/nps.2019.14

DO - 10.1017/nps.2019.14

M3 - Article

VL - 48

SP - 752

EP - 767

JO - Nationalities Papers

JF - Nationalities Papers

SN - 0090-5992

IS - 4

ER -