Send message to Authors

Abstract

Environmentalism and nationalism have long been seen as incompatible and antagonistic. Many studies have found the positive association between environmental concern and global or cosmopolitan identity. Indicatively, in the famous motto “Think globally, act locally” the national level of attachment is absent. Moreover, in a seminal work on contemporary environmental movements in Eastern Europe, Jane Dawson (1996) have found them to be a mere transitionary “surrogates” for national movements. In recent years, quantitative and qualitative studies have started to problematize the previously accepted belief in incompatibility of environmentalism and nationalism and found national identity as instrumental in promoting environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. Instead of giving an ultimate answer to the question whether strong national feeling obstructs pro-environmental behavior, our qualitative study is based on over 40 semi-structured interviews and looks into how nationalism and environmentalism are connected to each other in the heads of those already committed to the environmental cause – eco-activists in Russia’s regions: Moscow, one oblast (Tyumen), and one ethnic republic (Ufa). Our informants elaborate on counterintuitive but locally meaningful links between nationalism to pro-environmental behavior. They find commonalities between two social actions by referring to “altruism,” “empathy,” “indivisibility of motherland” including “natural heritage”, “collective values,” “duties to social and natural environment” and “moral obligations and responsibility.” Positive sentiments towards Russia, that is Russian (territorial) nationalism, function as the most prominent form of place attachment along with local (urban) sense of place. Notably, regional (republican) sense of place is important in Bashkortostan for ethically Bashkir, Tatar, and Russian environmentalists alike but not elsewhere. Global attachment does not feature much in the narratives of Russian environmentalists anymore. Thus, the recent out-migration of prominent activists, demographic shift in Russian environmentalist community, and growing governmental support for GONGOs have all contributed to the emergence of “environmental patriotism” as a prominent ecological discourse in diverse Russian regions.