State Silencing as a Tool to Suppress Russians’ Civil Resistance to the War with Ukraine

Abstract

The 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine brought back to the main political stage questions about the state of Russian society. Research and history show that civil nonviolent resistance can change countries’ policies, overthrow authoritarian regimes, and stop wars, but Russians have not used it on a massive scale to try to stop Russia’s gross human rights violations in Ukraine. The question remains: Why? In this essay, I analyze the role of state silencing and Russians’ inability and/or unwillingness to resist the regime. Although silencing is not the only reason why Russians are not protesting against the war with Ukraine, it has greatly contributed to Russians’ civil indifference, especially because it has been used for many years, in different forms (the use of direct violence against people protesting against the war, systemic silencing through law and regulations, the use of propaganda and censorship, etc.) and at all levels of society. Understanding the effects of state silencing on Russians’ ability and willingness to resist may improve understanding of how to strengthen civil society so that it is resilient and able to resist injustice, wars, and harmful policies. It can also contribute to a difficult process of reconciliation between Russians and Ukrainians in the future.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Notes on contributors

Katarzyna A. Przybyła

Katarzyna A. Przybyła is an associate editor of “Peace Review” and a lecturer at Collegium Civitas, Poland. She was the creator and supervisor of the Strategic Peace and Conflict Studies program there, run in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) till 2022. She teaches, writes, runs projects, facilitates workshops, and speaks at conferences on topics related to peace and conflict studies, political violence and nonviolent resistance, Eastern Europe, as well as conflict analysis and transformation, and strategic thinking. Katarzyna was a Fulbright Scholar in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies (University of Notre Dame, US) in the academic year 2014–2015. In 2018 – GMF’s Marshall Memorial Fellow. From 2018 to 2021 she worked as the Director of Analysis and Senior Editor at the analytical center Polityka Insight in Poland. Earlier, for almost eight years she worked in the National Security Bureau of Poland, focusing on the former Soviet Union, NATO-Russia relations, and international peace and security organizations. She graduated from Lazarski University, Warsaw, Poland (BA and MA in International Relations), and the University of Notre Dame, IN, USA (MA in Peace Studies). Currently, she is working on her PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]