Podlesnaia M.A. Frontline volunteerism as a new form of historicity: Analysis of local practices in the logic of A. Touraine. RUDN Journal of Sociology. 2026. Vol. 26. No. 2. Pp. 511-524. DOI: 10.22363 ...

Òåêñò ñòàòüè íà ñàéòå æóðíàëà URL: https://journals.rudn.ru/sociology/article/view/50941 (äàòà îáðàùåíèÿ 29.07.2026)

Abstract

The article considers local volunteer practices in Russia’s historical territories during the Special Military Operation (SMO). Contrary to institutional interpretations of volunteerism as an instrument of state policy or social capital, the study applies A. Touraine’s activist approach, examining volunteerism as a form of new social movements in which participants acquire civil agency and historicity through a triad: identity (“who we are”), opponent (“what we are fighting against or for”), and object of conflict (“what we want to change”). Volunteerism is presented not as a response to a crisis, but as an active construction of actor autonomy in a “programmable society”, where the SMO returns the “unnecessary man” the status of a historical subject, capable of defining the meaning of life through practices of solidarity, risk, and mutual support. The main research question is to what extent and by what means regional/city volunteer groups form autonomous agency under the SMO, especially in frontline zones (Severodonetsk, Donetsk, Kursk, Belgorod, Skadovsk, etc.). The study is based on methodological triangulation: 21 in- depth interviews with regional coordinators, group curators, and volunteers; three- year non- participant observation of several regional/local volunteer organizations; participant observation during the Russian Orthodox Church mission in Severodonetsk (October 2025). According to the data obtained, the volunteers’ identity is constructed in the logic of “us/ours” against internal opponents (Russians who ignore the SMO) and through distancing from the state “programmatic ideologies”; systemic alienation is observed in the attitude towards opponent (social atomization, indifference of some Russians); and the object of the conflict is described as the restoration of a “form of historicity” through solidarity. SMO has catalyzed transformation: successful youth and managers from megacities acquire authenticity, moving from imitation to a bodily experience of risk and humaneness, overcoming the value vacuum of the “culture of noise”. Solidarity practices enhance historicity: 7 out of 10 cases examined show constant return to places of volunteering, mythologization of heroes among frontline volunteers, developed networks (marriages, correspondence), regional features of the “typical” volunteer (specific personal and professional qualities).