Moral Face-Work and (Dis)identification with the State: Russian’s Perception of the Russo-Ukrainian War

• In Event: Public Sociology Laboratory: Studying Russian Society in the Time of War

Abstract

Social scientists have long studied how the public perceives interstate military conflicts waged by their respective states. The literature on public opinion regarding state-led wars offers several explanations for why people support or oppose such decisions by their governments. However, most assume that individuals hold a “position” and that scholars need only to explain the factors influencing these positions. This paper challenges that assumption by examining how Russians perceive and justify the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the Public Sociology Laboratory across multiple Russian regions, this study argues that only politicized individuals maintain consistent positions on the war. Many other Russian citizens adjust their value judgments depending on communicative contexts. The paper identifies three key communicative regimes of speaking about the war: engaged justification, in which individuals identify with the state and defend the war; criticism, where they counter-position themselves to the state and critique the war’s impact on ordinary Russians; and distanced justification, where they disidentify from the state without actively opposing it, normalizing the war as an inevitable reality. The study highlights the performative function of these judgments, demonstrating how “face-work” strategies allow individuals to maintain a moral self-image in a depoliticized, authoritarian society. These findings contribute to scholarship on public opinion formation under authoritarianism and political reasoning in the context of complex international conflicts.

Author

• Svetlana Erpyleva, U of Bremen (Germany)