Brave New Russian World? The Rise and Prospects of a New Patriotic Culture in Wartime Russia

Abstract

Since the beginning of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian culture has undergone significant transformations. During the third term of the Putin administration in the 2010s, particularly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the divide between left-wing and right-wing intellectuals deepened. The full-scale invasion has made this division decisive. Many intellectuals and cultural figures taking an oppositional stance have left the country, using primarily online platforms to openly criticize the regime. Meanwhile, within Russia, where liberal intellectuals and media have been shut out, a new patriotic culture symbolized by the alphabet letter “Z” is emerging.

This paper focuses on the “Z culture” emerging in Russia following the invasion, particularly on the patriotic poetry trend known as “Z-poetry,” analyzing the activities of poets associated with this movement and the content of their works. It also examines the post-invasion statements of war-supporting intellectuals, such as patriotic writer Zakhar Prilepin and St. Petersburg thinker Alexander Sekatsky, considering their perspectives on Russian society and culture during wartime and their visions for the future.