An illustration showing the artist Alexandra (Sasha) Skochilenko being dragged away by the police. IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Peer-reviewed articles TRANSFORMATION OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN RUSSIA AFTER 2022

This article examines the transformation of civic engagement in Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with civic and political activists across several Russian regions, the article traces how anti-war and oppositional initiatives transformed under conditions of escalating repression. Using a micro-sociological approach, the article foregrounds emotions and strategic dilemmas as key (dis)enables of civic engagement alongside with the political opportunity structures. It argues that Russian civil society has not collapsed, but has moved through several stages of the initial moral shock and immediate mobilization, towards fragmentation and cautious re-mobilization. By 2026 civic engagement persists primarily through informal and low-visibility forms, using strategic depolitization as a tactic to survive.

Published in the printed edition of Baltic Worlds BW 2026:2, pp 8-21
Published on balticworlds.com on May 29, 2026

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abstract

This article examines the transformation of civic engagement in Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with civic and political activists across several Russian regions, the article traces how anti-war and oppositional initiatives transformed under conditions of escalating repression. Using a micro-sociological approach, the article foregrounds emotions and strategic dilemmas as key (dis)enables of civic engagement alongside with the political opportunity structures. It argues that Russian civil society has not collapsed, but has moved through several stages of the initial moral shock and immediate mobilization, towards fragmentation and cautious re-mobilization. By 2026 civic engagement persists primarily through informal and low-visibility forms, using strategic depolitization as a tactic to survive.

KEYWORDS: Civic engagement, Russian civil society, anti-war activism, repression, emotions, moral dilemmas, strategic depoliticization.

FULL ARTICLE AS A PDF FOR FREE DOWNLOAD, SEE UPPER RIGHT CORNER.

Ekaterina Kalinina

  • by Ekaterina Kalinina

    PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University and a project researcher leading the project Sustainable Urban Development: Agency, Networks and Communication in uncertain times, financed by The Foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies at Södertörn University.

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