Narrative Genres and Cultural Resources of Ordinary Justification of the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979–1989)

This paper examines ordinary justification of military conflicts and their cultural resources based on interviews with veterans of the 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan. We begin by reviewing studies of public justifications and ordinary perception of wars. Based on the review of studies of the relationship between public opinion and decisions to initiate and terminate military conflicts, we conclude that ordinary perceptions of military conflicts have a prescriptive force. We criticize the utilitarian focus characteristic of studies of public justifications, as well as the limited consideration of cultural resources and beliefs about what is proper in the study of ordinary perception. To overcome these limitations, we turn to the strong program in cultural sociology that postulates the thesis of the autonomy of culture and offers tools for studying justifications - narrative genres and cultural resources. Ordinary justifications of military conflicts are examined using interviews with veterans of Afghanistan as an example. Based on the analysis of 22 interviews with veterans of the war in Afghanistan, three narrative genres of ordinary legitimation and delegitimation of this conflict are identified: social realism, apocalyptic, and skeptical. Each narrative genre is characterized by its own approach engaging cultural resources, different views on the war in Afghanistan and some of its particular events, such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan of the Soviet troops. Ordinary justifications demonstrate relative autonomy from public justifications, the ability of independent work with an extensive cultural repertoire within the Russian historical context.