It is impossible to read those tales of old times without comparing them to stories of the anti-war movement: ‘As long as I can remember, it was always like this: firstly there was a triggering event, then we picked up this momentum, and then, after a while, nothing was left of this uplift’ – an activist who has taken part in student protests since 2018 tells us. Our other sources agree: ‘we failed to form an organization’, ‘we can’t coordinate our efforts and figure out what to do to reach a wider audience’. ‘I don’t know who to trust and who I can tell about this no-war-at-all’ – adds a student from FEFU (Far East Federal University).
There is a fog enveloping lecture halls; in this fog only enemies appear and comrades are nowhere to be seen. Students are disconnected and isolated due to the weakness of their specific identity. The small organizational cells inside one institution, made up of close friends, don’t know about each other. This same individualism, letting young protesters risk their own selves, makes them unable to form organizations comprising people outside their circle of friends. At best, they can unite through sharing stronger ideals, whether it be feminism, socialism, libertarianism or anarchism, or by reading the same Telegram channels. The social media space is fragmented, which is why activists supporting Feminist Anti-War Resistance may not know of Student Against War and vice versa.
The ‘fakes law’ and crackdown on protests have paralysed the activist movement. Public resistance is now dangerous, while acting behind the scenes is ineffective. On top of that, until then one could hold onto hopes of the war and the regime soon ending; now, though, no one understands how to defeat the regime. Activists reportedly had no idea of the strategic goal of their actions. They acted because they had to, not because this was part of a coordinated effort.
As a response, Students Against War aimed to consolidate a previously atomised movement by launching protest campaigns via their Telegram channel. This provides infrastructure for decentralized coordination: the only shared entity is the channel itself. It publishes anti-war photos, videos and information, as well as guides and materials for student protesters to inspire future actions.
Students were offered several campaigns with minimal forms of risk, including ‘Books Instead Of Bombs’ and ‘Rector, Withdraw Your Signature!’. The first called for anti-war seminars and study groups, thus helping to overcome atomisation and draw in new people. The second was a response to an open letter by the Russian Union of Rectors in support of the war, which quickly gained popularity. During this time, students posted flyers and stickers, though to no avail: no signatures were recalled from that open letter and the campaign gradually declined. Besides information on campaigns and guides, SAW published texts on student protests of the past: the student antifascist movement, the occupation of ENS in France, and students’ anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam War. “I didn’t even know students could do that”. One way or another, SAW managed to fulfill the most important goal: to save the anti-war movement in universities.
Anti-war stickers in universities. Photo via t.me/antiwarstudents/636
Now, five months since the beginning of the war, it is safe to say that students are ‘demobilized’, having come to terms with a new reality. Many of them decided to take supporting roles: they started supporting refugees, helping to pay fines and writing letters to political prisoners. There is some hope for the coming local elections to mobilize activists. But for now Russian protest is in its war-of-siege phase, which student unions were not ready for.
On May 19, Students Against War were rebranded to the Students’ Anti-War Movement. In a panel discussion held by Posle.media, a SAW spokesperson set the aims of the movement: to provide organizational infrastructure, establish connections, and show options and opportunities for social transformation. Participants also insisted on the need to overcome atomisation, to consolidate and expand the anti-war movement, and to specify visions for the future worth fighting for.
The infrastructure spoken of by SAW should pose a response to burnout, apathy, and anomie in student communities. This infrastructure may become a much needed stimulus for protesters, and help expand the movement, gain experience and prepare to launch initiatives when needed. It is evident in certain local student communities that take every opportunity to act; for instance, when the spam filter of HSE’s corporate email network blocked their messages, activists instantly created a general anti-war mailing list.
But what should this infrastructure look like? Our sources have told us about their desire to turn chaotic and decentralized efforts into organized movement, with cells and programs joined together. They want to not only ally with peers inside their institution, but from all universities, all cities, all around the country. Students are now trying to figure out what they should fight for and how they should motivate others. What will their tactics be? Should they expand the ranks of student activists, or should they ‘go to the people’, as did the Parisian students who got jobs in factories in the 1960s, about whom SAW wrote so often? If they want to step out of the classroom, why not utilize academic resources for anti-war agitation via open lectures and cultural events?
If student organizers want to gain a foothold at university, why not unite with their teachers and use student councils and unions to protect each other from expulsion as best they can? Should they link an anti-war platform with a general democratic and academic agenda - on the most pressing issues affecting universities, especially in terms of management?
Such a network of anti-war activists, expanding both inside and outside the university, would let students take part in a ‘war of positions’ against the current regime and to mobilize the community, when this ‘war’ will finally reach its offensive phase.
[1] An act of wearing protest messages on clothes or belongings while traveling by public transport and continuing everyday activity, invented by Russian activist Daria Serenko, who later wrote a book of the same name about her experiences.
[2] Of course, people are not only protesting in these specific universities. For example, a group from the faculty of history of OmSU (Omsk) has rolled out a campaign against the merging of the faculties of Theology and Physical Education.
[3] While protesting against the Code of Ethics, HSE students referred directly to the dangerous possibility of the code being used by the administration to carry out political repressions.
Translation: MB
Editing: Rachael Horwitz