How Russians perceive and experience Russia's invasion of Ukraine, 2024

Description

The dataset was compiled based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the Public Sociology Laboratory in Kursk region—a borderland, close to front region of Russia—between August 31th 2024 and December 15th 2024. It consists of 7 semi-structured interviews with residents of this region and two ethnographic diaries, each compiled by a particular research during single field trip. The first trip took place in September-October 2024 and the second—in December-November 2024. Researches visited the city of Kursk and the town of Iglovka (name is changed). The diaries contain the following types of data: descriptions of how the war is reflected in the public space; descriptions of organized forms and practices of support for the refugees; recollections of informal or indirect interviews. Indirect interview is a method of speaking with people in an environment comfortable for them, following the natural flow of conversation without audio recording them, while at the same time asking previously prepared questions that are important for research. The detailed notes are written in ethnographic field diaries after each indirect interview. All of the interlocutors—both from direct and indirect interviews—can be divided into three groups: refugees (residents of the border areas who left their homes after these territories came under the control of the Ukrainian army), volunteers, and residents of the Kursk region who are not refugees, that is, people who are not directly affected by the military actions. Indirect interviews with refugees began with questions about their current emotional state and gradually turned into detailed accounts of their lives before and during the war, their evacuation experiences, and the difficulties of settling in a new place. Indirect interviews with volunteers covered their work in humanitarian aid centers, how they became involved in volunteering, and how they themselves assessed the organization of volunteer work. Indirect interviews with local residents who were neither volunteers nor refugees focused on the situation in the region and its impact on everyday life, as well as on emotions connected with the war. Formal interviews included all of these themes and were supplemented with questions about informants’ political views and experiences of political participation, their media consumption, and their socio-economic background.
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Countries

Russia

Keywords

Russia War Russo-Ukrainian War Refugees Volunteers War Perception Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Ethnography Wartime Russia War Experience

Language of data

Russian

Disciplines

Anthropology Political Science Political Sociology Social Anthropology Sociology

Methods of data collection

Ethnographic Diaries Observation Participant Observation Semi-Structured Interviews