Les mouvements de jeunes contestataires en Russie : s'opposer dans la rue et par la rue (2005-2010)

Abstract

What rationales and forms of action have the young protesters of Russia’s liberal democratic opposition adopted on the eve of the 2011-2012 electoral cycle ? Empirical field data reveals the manner in which these actors conceived of and carried out their mobilization between 2005 and 2010 despite small numbers, meager material and organizational resources and the constraints imposed on their efforts by the machinery of the state. In order to take to the streets – their sole outlet for political action and expression – activists “juggled” several different modes of action. For some of them, these were part and parcel of routine activist practices. For others, they were a matter of necessity and innovation. Through their dynamic interactions with the state, the activists thus sought, not only to adapt their forms of mobilization to the structural conditions of action, but also to push back the limits of what is possible and acceptable in the street. While they help to keep their protest movement going, these strategies have not allowed young actors to break away from their political marginality or status as “street opposition” in the period studied.