From: Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies #7, December 2007
An electronic journal of social sciences
www.pipss.org <http://www.pipss.org/>
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS: “The Political and Social Role of Veterans in Russia,
the Soviet-Union and the Post-Soviet States: a Sociology of War Veterans”
Pipss.org is a new electronic journal of social sciences devoted to the
armed forces and power institutions of post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a
multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses issues across a broad field of
disciplines including sociology, anthropology, political science,
psychology, economics, history, legal science. Its main objective is to
study changes and their underlying mechanisms in post-Soviet republics,
through the analysis of the institutions that remain most hidden from the
public eye: armies and power institutions. As an electronic journal,
pipss.org also aims to promote scholarly debate across as broad an audience
as possible, and make CIS research available to Western scholars. Thanks to
its international scientific board drawn from a large pool of leading
academics and experts in their respective fields, it is in a position to
become a leading source of analysis on post-Soviet societies. Pipss.org is a
principal partner of the International Security Network (www.isn.ethz.ch )
and a member of the CNRS/EHESS scientific journals network Revues.org.
SEVENTH ISSUE : “The Political and Social Role of Veterans in Russia, the
Soviet-Union and the Post-Soviet States: a Sociology of War Veterans”
This issue will focus on the veterans of Russian, Soviet, and Post-Soviet
wars from a comparative as well as multidisciplinary perspective.
We are interested in different levels of analysis: macro (the state and
national public policies), meso (social and political organisations) and
micro (on the individual level).
Few approaches to war pay much attention to ex-servicemen and to the
emergence of these new players: most often, veterans are perceived in terms
of the well-known triptych “disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration”, or
from the anthropologists’ point of view– the cult of heroes and martyrs.
Although we will include these approaches in our issue, we hope to explore
new angles of thought, such as the institutional and social dimensions
inherent in the aftermaths of war, and to study the legal, social, political
and symbolic markers of the war veteran population.
Thus, the emergence of ex-combatants as a distinct social group and the
political and social role they play will be understood thanks to a study of
how various political actors (the state and the security apparatuses in
particular) contribute to the perpetuation of this group, but also to the
group’s own formulation of its interests and how it sees itself.
We will study veteran populations from the federal armed forces as well as
from the many armies attached to the Russian and Post-Soviet power
ministries and secret service agencies.
The periods of time and geographic areas covered are: World War II,
Afghanistan, the two Chechen wars, Tajikistan, Abkhazia, and the Karabakh
war. The comparison will be extended to Africa, Kurdistan, the Balkans, etc.
1 – The State and Public Policy Concerning Veterans
In Russia, social policy for veterans depends on how the state defines the
war. The visibility of veterans therefore depends on the image of the war –
a glorious war or not. Because if the state refuses to call it a “war”, the
war doesn’t exist! Therefore, when we set about studying state policy
towards veterans, we must first examine the status of the various wars under
consideration – is it a war or a military operation?
For many years, the status of war veteran was granted only to fighters in
the Great Patriot War. The cases of the war in Afghanistan – a shameful war
– and the war in Chechnya –a war that isn’t a war – are particularly
striking in this regard and at the core of this study: measures in favour of
social coverage for Russian veterans of local wars was introduced very late
– only in 2003 was an amendment to the “law on veterans” passed, giving
veteran status to ex-combatants in Chechnya and other local wars, such as
that of Abkhazia.
In actual fact however, veterans remain in search of recognition. They are
often led to prosecuting the Defence Minister in order to gain economic and
political recognition of their veteran status. Thus in 2005, the regional
court of the province of Orel, dismissed the case of a Chechen war veteran
who had demanded compensation for having been wounded during the fighting,
claiming that there were no grounds on which the state could be considered
responsible for his wounds. The plaintiff was advised to appeal to the
Chechen rebels for compensation.
The following themes will therefore be explored:
- the bases of social policy towards veterans
- the construction of state aid to veterans
- modes and criteria for state coverage/compensation (Who grants
the status of war veteran? the associations themselves, unions? other?)
- war compensation and preferential measures in favour of veterans:
o the repertory of advantages put in place for veterans, their
disappearance and its consequences on the structuring of the veterans
network.
o Preferential measures for war veterans (tax-free alcohol or petrol
for veterans associations, etc.). For example, the preferential measures
granted to veterans by the Russian government in 1991 (tax reductions,
licence for the tax-free import of alcohol and tobacco, etc.) gave rise to
the criminal activities and enrichment of small groups.
o Reintegration – preferential employment: In Abkhazia, for example,
on government orders, preferential jobs (particularly in Customs) were
offered to this category of the population. In Russia, at first it was the
local police that wanted to take on Chechnya war veterans. Today, it seems
that a large number of veterans integrate the various Russian armed forces
on a contract basis. Is there a deliberate policy on the part of the Russian
state in favour of reintegrating veterans in the force structures? Or are
veterans’ employment choices structure (police, army contracts, etc.)
clearly determined by their military training and the internalisation of the
military function?
- We will discuss the fact that war seems to remain an activity
that the veterans of the Afghanistan and Chechnya wars identify with after
the war. It is obvious that ex-combatants rarely devote themselves to
anti-war activities or to any activity preventive of war. Rather, the
prevailing idea is to be “ready in case of war”. Afghanistan veterans in
particular broadly identified with army reserves, defining their
military-patriotic work with young people as their mission. Many veterans of
the Chechnya wars opted for the private security market. Some set up
military vacation camps for businessmen and adolescents, though this has not
yet developed to any great extent.
- Putin’s mobilisation of Chechnya veterans, but also of
Afghanistan veterans, in the context of the national patriotic project
defined up to 2011 – the enrolment of veterans for territorial defence, for
the promotion of military service, for military education in schools,
patriotic clubs, the production of patriotic films and songs– seems to
indicate a similarity between the expectations of this population and the
societal project such as the Russian president has defined it.
- We will discuss the return to civil life of ex-combatants and the
risk of a “brutalisation” of society (in particular the consequences of the
cooptation of veterans in the police, in the security services, etc.)
2 – The constitution of associations and groups of veterans
A - The constitution of new social groups based on the common experience of
violence
We will first focus on what constitutes fighters as a group, on fighters as
a “community of experience”, on the need to structure and create a specific,
homogeneous image of the experience of war.
We would be interested in an analysis of the “combat brotherhood” discourse
and its role in the aftermath of war.
B - Ex-servicemen’s movements
For this issue, we would be interested in studies of veterans’ organisations
on the following themes:
- The creation and development of associations of ex-combatants
- The role of the Komsomol in the creation of associations of
Afghanistan veterans
- The composition of veterans movements
- A comparative study of associations of Afghanistan and Chechnyan
veterans
- The ideology of these movements
- Repertory of the collective actions of these movements
- The relative weight of veterans associations and associations of
civil victims
- The place of servicewomen in veterans associations
C - From association to politics: veterans and politics
- Did the veterans of the Soviet Union, or later on, Russian
veterans, constitute a pressure group? Do they now constitute a pressure
group? Although they took part in demands for social benefits during
perestroika, Afghanistan veterans have never constituted a pressure group.
What about today’s Chechnya veterans? Since 2003, regional governments have
had the right to pass their own laws on the compensation of veterans of
local wars. Have these prerogatives favoured the appearance of a pressure
group that lobbies regional authorities?
- What is the actual political importance of the veterans of
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia legally (as a parliamentary group) and/or
illegally (constitution of private armies)
- The personalities of veterans’ movements and their role in state
institutions.
3 – Individuals seeking a place in society
A - The psychological consequences of the war experience
- After a war, what is the effect on ex-servicemen of the
experience of war, the experience of the use of violence, fighting, the
danger of death and killing others?
- The psychological rehabilitation of veterans
- Access to care
B - Memorials, folklore and songs: study of the symbolic markers of the
veteran population
a - Monuments and memorials: the treatment of various wars
- Analysis of war memorials policy
- The role of associations of Afghanistan veterans in the
commemoration of the Chechnya conflicts
b- Folklore, songs and literary works
- Analysis of the folklore, musical and literary production of Soviet,
Post-Soviet and Russian war veterans
c – Analysis of the cinematographic representation of regional wars.
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Guidelines for article submission
The journal will be published in four languages (French, English, Russian,
and German with a 100-word abstract in English) thanks to which most authors
will be able to write in their mother tongue. This will ensure greater
precision in the articles and avoid a decrease in scientific quality. But we
draw your attention to the fact that most pipss.org readers are essentially
English speakers, therefore we do encourage articles in English in order to
reach an audience as broad as possible.
The articles submitted to pipss.org for publication should be original
contributions and should not be under consideration for any other
publication at the same time. Manuscripts should be attached as Microsoft
Word format. References should be given in footnotes. (For more details
about the guidelines for article submission please check www.pipss.org
<http://www.pipss.org/> or contact the Editorial Board). There should be a
cover page stating the author's background and affiliation, full address.
If you wish to submit an article, please first contact the editorial board
and send an 100-word abstract in English. The deadline for article
submission is September 10, 2007, with publication in December. Final
decisions on publication will be made by the Editorial Board.
Please send your contributions or inquiries to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Chief Editor, [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (7th Issue Editor)
Editorial Board : Eden Cole, Francoise Dauce, Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Anna
Colin Lebedev, Anne Le Huerou, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van Bladel
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Papers dealing with other issues related to armies and power institutions
in the CIS, as well as book review proposals are also welcome.
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REVIEWS
Publishers interested in publicizing their editions, please send review
copies to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski
15 rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France
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Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski
Chief Editor
The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies
www.pipss.org <http://www.pipss.org/>
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Editorial Board : Eden Cole, Françoise Daucé, Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Anna
Lebedev, Anne Le Huérou, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van Bladel
Scientific Board : Adrian Beck (UK), Alexander Belkin (Russia), Frédéric
Charillon (France), Stephen Cimbala (USA), Julian Cooper (UK), Roger Mc
Dermott (UK), Isabelle Facon (France), Mark Galeotti (UK), Aleksandr Gol'ts
(Russia), Dale Herspring (USA), Philippe Manigart (Belgium), Kimberly Zisk
Marten (USA), Michael Orr (UK), Michael Parrish (USA), Nikolay Petrov
(Russia), Eduard Ponarin (Russia), Jean-Christophe Romer (France), Jacques
Sapir (France), Manfred Sapper (Germany), Louise Shelley (USA), Richard
Staar (USA), Brian Taylor (USA), Mikhail Tsypkin (USA), Stephen Webber (UK),
Elena Zdravomyslova (Russia).
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