The mechanisms of forced military enlistment amid the intersections of ethnicity, rurality and spatial mobility in Russia

Abstract

This paper is focused on the forced mechanisms of military enlistment for participation in Russia’s war in Ukraine. It argues that the structures of spatial mobility determine the greater vulnerability of rural dwellers and other lower strata of the population to coercive military enlistment by the state. It also argues that multi-dimensional barriers to spatial mobility contribute to the intersectional vulnerability when, for example, being an ethnic minority also often overlaps with being a rural resident, which in turn results in fewer opportunities to avoid military conscription. The author’s attention to broader social forces shows that the decision to sign a military contract during wartime is often a forced measure. Combining digital ethnography, expert interviews, regression analysis and autoethnography she explains how the intersections of several forms of inequalities contribute to vulnerability to the forced military enlistment.