ABSTRACT
A close reading of what the Russian officer corps said about itself in the late 1990s shows that the military recognized that it had become a rather marginal social actor. The relative passivity of the Russian officer corps in the face of massive institutional decline may seem odd, but it is understandable once the incentives facing individual military officers are clarified. The military began to reflect the fragmentation of the Russian state and society as a whole; troops and officers increasingly joined the miners, the defense industry workers, and the teachers and scientists who had already been involved in such local protests for years. This chapter examines what Russian military officers said about themselves when they were writing in military newspapers and journal. Revolutionary local protests and riots may indeed reemerge from Russian garrisons, but they are likely to be led by officers rather than against them. The chapter speculates about what this means for Russian society in the future.
