Militarized Masculinity and Soviet-Afghan War Veterans in Post-Soviet Russia

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores militarized masculinity among veterans of the Soviet Afghan War in Post-Soviet Russia. As Soviet Afghan War veterans returned home, they came back to a country that regarded the war they had fought in as unheroic, a political mistake, or a bleeding wound—forcing veterans to grapple with their own self-understanding as men and as soldiers. Now, however, the war is increasingly undergoing a reassessment, and Afghan War veterans have been reincorporated into the common understandings of a Russian militarized masculinity. This panel explores how these veterans have reinterpreted their experiences and identities to fit into models of heroic, militarized masculinity during and after this shift.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Chair

• Mirjam Voerkelius, U of Maryland, Baltimore County

Papers

• Real Madmen?: Psychiatry and Soldiers during the Soviet-Afghan War - Sara Ruiz, U of Michigan

• Aerial Fetishism in Russian War Cinema: Helicopters, Jets, and Military Mythmaking - Holly Myers, U of Delaware

• Disabled Masculinity after Afghanistan - Emily Hoge, Clemson U

Discussants

• Karen Petrone, U of Kentucky

• Amy Elise Randall, Santa Clara U