The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, # 10, June 2009
An electronic journal of social sciences
www.pipss.org
Call for contributors: “The relations of the Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet army with non Russians, from the Imperial Age to the present”.
Pipss.org is an 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.
Tenth issue: “The relations of the Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet army with non Russians, from the Imperial Age to the present”.
In 2009, our electronic review, The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies ( www.pipss.org) will devote an issue to “the relations of the Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet army with non Russians, from the Imperial Age to the present”. The issue will present a multidisciplinary view – historical, sociological, anthropological, demographic, political science, etc.
Owing to its situation as melting pot of the Nation, the army has always had to deal with the problem of ethnic diversity, its recognition and importance varying according to the period.
The Imperial Age was marked by the introduction of universal conscription. Yet despite the declared “universality” of military service, different recruitment policies were applied depending on geographic and social origin, as well as religion.
After the revolution, the Red Army, which became the Soviet army, played and essential role in the making of “the Soviet man”: military service became the nation’s school – it was the Army’s job to teach populations to read and write and to Russianise them. Managing the ethnic mix in the Army was a complex problem. The Army’s physical needs and its needs for skills, combined with the authorities’ distrust of certain minorities led to numerous twists and turns: ethnic battalions were organised, while minorities considered unreliable were first barred from conscription, then gradually reintegrated.
After the Great Patriotic War, the continuing distrust of certain nationalities on the part of the high command led to the exclusion of these populations from the officers corps, while less prestigious battalions (stroibat) were made up essentially of Central Asian recruits. Military hierarchy was predominantly Slav. It was during this period that the zemliachestvo phenomenon appeared.
On the eve of the fall of the Soviet Union, some of the federated states (notably the Baltic republics) considered the Soviet army as an occupying army. Many minorities refused to speak Russian. When the USSR collapsed, it was the Slavs’ turn to be a minority in the armies originating in the Soviet army (in states) outside Russia.
Having chosen to maintain a policy of conscription, the post-Soviet Russian army remains confronted with ethnic and religious problems: in particular, it is faced with a sharp increase in its Muslim population (this increase was already problematical under Brezhnev, but became less so with the fall of the USSR and the loss of Central Asia, especially Azerbaidjan. The two Chechen conflicts, as in the previous war in Afghanistan, forced military authorities to adopt specific policies towards Muslim recruits. Finally, the post-Soviet Russian army seems at present to have officially chosen to support local and ethnic grouping as a new method for eradicating dedovchtchina, and continues to direct Muslim recruits towards non combat
and less prestigious battalions.
The organisation of ethnic and religious diversity specific to each of these different epochs up to now is therefore the crux of our investigation. The study of military policies in regard to minorities from the tsarist epoch up to the present time seems essential to an understanding of the foundations of post-Soviet ethnic relations.
The questions we would like to deal with in this issue are the following:
Minorities and conscription policy
- minority conscription policies during the various periods mentioned (Jews, Muslims, Caucasian ethnic minorities, etc.); problems encountered by the authorities for the integration of these minorities; passive and active resistance of these minorities to integration into the army; political, social, demographic, linguistic and physical barriers to integration into military service;
- dissensions between ethnic minorities and the state
Ethnic units
- the training of ethnic units; the role of ethnic minorities during the first and second world wars (their contribution to the victory of the Red army over Nazi Germany);
- the use of ethnic units during local wars (Tadjikistan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, etc.).
Zemliatchestvo
- the principle of extra-territorialit y and nationalities policy in the army;
- ethnic grouping in the army (zemliatchestvo) : yesterday and today; ethnic (and religious) grouping as a factor in the eradication of dedovchtchina in the post-Soviet army?
The Slavic minority, from the tsarist empire to the CIS
- The Ukrainising of the Ukrainian Soviet State in the 20s and 30s;
- Russian/Slavic officers in CIS armies;
Language policy in the army
- the Russian army and language policy (Russianising, literacy, the language of command, etc.)
- the Russian occupation army (from the imperial army to the Soviet army before the collapse of the USSR)
- CIS armies and language policy after the fall of the USSR
The army, military exploits and the xenophobic component in Russian nationalist discourse
- the appropriation by the Russians of the army’s glories, from Stalin (under whom, already, only the great Russian generals were celebrated) to Putin.
Religious minorities in the army
- managing religious minorities (Jewish, Muslim, etc.) in the army; freedom of worship; dealing with Muslim conscripts during the Afghan and Chechen crises;
- changeover to a professional army. What is the scenario, in the context of an increasing Muslim population? Towards a mono-national and mono-religious volunteer army or an army representative of national diversity? (towards the constitution of multinational or mono-national units, as is the case in Chechnya today?)
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Guidelines for article submission
The journal will be published in three languages (French, English and Russian 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 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 a 100-word abstract in English. The deadline for article submission is April 10, 2009, with publication in June 2009. Final decisions on publication will be made by the Editorial Board.
Please send your contributions or inquiries to:
Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Chief Editor,
contact@pipss. org
Juliette Cadiot, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (10th Issue Editor)
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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
contact@pipss. org
Editorial Board: Eden Cole, Anna Colin Lebedev, Françoise Dauce, Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, Anne Le Huerou, Erica Marat, Laurent Rucker, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski, Joris Van Bladel
Scientific Board: Adrian Beck (UK), Alexander Belkin (Russia), Frederic 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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