Ulikhet, marginalisering og politikk: erfaringer fra russiske monobyer

Abstract

This paper addresses inequality and marginality in Russia through an urban lens. Mono-industrial cities, in short “monotowns”, are attractive locations for this research because of the legacy of city-building enterprises, industrial reconstruction, and crisis. Approaching experiences of people, whose voices are rarely heard in studies of (pre-war) Russia, the paper addresses two interconnected questions: How do people in monotowns describe experiences with marginality in the everyday? What does marginality mean for politics and societal development in Russia at war? The empirical analysis draws on experiences from three monotowns, Tolyatti, Nikel, and Zapolyarny. Interviews were conducted in the period 2019–2022. The analysis illustrates subjective experiences with urban transformation and includes reflections on industrial restructuring, downsizing, and precarity, as well as civic activism, entrepreneurship, and self-employment. Across these experiences, narratives of marginality and decay emerge, which complement research on political economic change in Russia with perspectives on a new social periphery. This development in monotows is situated in context of the global financial crisis 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In conclusion, the experiences are about subjects living through the “transit” and endless “collapse” of the previous system. A final discussion addresses the risk marginality entails for political legitimacy in Russia.