Practices of Political Street Art in the Russian political regime: the Case of Saint Petersburg

This master thesis is devoted to the identification and the analysis of the practices of political street art in the conditions of the modern Russian political regime in Saint Petersburg. The author uncovers the essence and conceptual characteristics of political street art – its main forms, functions, and typology. An attempt is made to incorporate the phenomenon of political street art in the theory of social movements. This decision has allowed considering the Russian political regime within the concept of the structure of political opportunities, which has given an opportunity to select a group of indicators for the analysis of political and institutional framework for political street art. Factors of external and internal political character have been revealed which have led to the transformation of the political context in modern Russia and to the strengthening of authoritarian tendencies. Also the history of origin and development of street art in Russia, dynamics of this phenomenon and its characteristic tendencies have been considered. On the basis of the conducted qualitative research, the author proposes to distinguish three groups of actors of political street art. Special attention is paid to the identification and description of distinctive features of each group.