Symbolic Construction of Sovereignty through State Holidays in Contemporary Russia

This study explores one of the main elements of symbolic politics in any state, namely public holidays. Speeches given by Russian president to commemorate these holidays are used as a lens through which sovereignty can be socially constructed. Therefore, the central research question is formulated in the following way: how is sovereignty constructed through public holidays in contemporary Russia? The paper adopts the constructivist interpretation of sovereignty proposed by Biersteker and Weber who argued that sovereignty should be understood as a dynamic and context-specific discourse. This theoretical approach is opposed to the realist perspective that tends to overlook socially determined aspects of sovereignty. Notably, empirical studies grounded in the constructivist theory of sovereignty largely neglected the post-Soviet region that was characterized by significant changes in symbolic politics over the course of the past 30 years. At the same time, public holidays, for the most part, were studied as part of memory politics and processes of nation-building. Therefore, this paper takes a broader outlook at the role of public holidays in symbolic politics and makes an empirical contribution to the study of social nature of sovereignty in one of the former Soviet republics. The method of qualitative content analysis is employed to analyze speeches given by presidents Yeltsin, Putin, and Medvedev between 1993 and 2020. This type of content analysis supposes summarizing data and identification of categories in materials covered by the study. Categories, or in other words, codes are identified based on key words and topics related to sovereignty. These topics manifest four central elements of sovereignty described by Biersteker and Weber: population, authority, recognition, and territory. In their speeches, Yeltsin, Putin, and Medvedev focused their attention primarily on two dimensions of sovereignty, namely population and authority, while recognition was much less discussed and territory was not discussed in detail at all. The substantive content of categories related to these dimensions allows to develop understanding of sovereignty is constructed in contemporary Russia. Population or nation is described as a cohesive diverse community that respects its ancestors and thousand-year history. Moreover, Russian nation is portrayed as having special qualities that make it different from other nations. These qualities, among other things, include patriotism and victorious spirit. Authority of state officials is justified through an emphasis on the democratic and constitutional nature of political processes in the country and quality and effectiveness of public administration. The necessity of a strong state that ensures these qualities is also defended. External recognition of Russia or, in other words, the significance of Russia in world politics is justified through the primacy of local laws over international ones. The role of Russia in world politics is explained through the influence of Russian language and culture and participation of the country in various coalitions that strive for world peace and oppose international terrorism. Therefore, such conceptualization of sovereignty reinforces the image of Russia as a largely modern rather than post-modern state.