ABSTRACT
Young Russians are often described as “depoliticized” (Zhelnina; Schwirtz). However, membership in state-run youth groups is rapidly growing, and many young Russians express support for the war by sharing violent/racist content online. This chapter uses discourse analysis to trace the militarized subjectivity of the young Putinist self on TikTok, exploring how young Russians respond online to the state’s narratives – especially historical narratives (e.g., of World War 2) – about war. It focuses on videos published by three accounts affiliated with the Youth Army (Yunarmiya), a state-funded paramilitary group. Social media feeds function as today’s “diaries” (Humphreys), revealing discourses both between the state and its subjects and within the subject. It asks: how do young Putinist subjects reiterate the language and visual forms of the state? How do they incorporate violence and militarism into their daily lives? How do non-Youth Army members interact with discourse(s) of violence? Even though public support for the war may not be explicitly voiced by teens, the chapter argues that by incorporating the aesthetic and language of state-sponsored militarism into their daily lives, teens who belong to the state’s youth movements are active participants in the co-creation of support for violence.
