Paper short abstract:

Paramilitary groups in Central-Eastern Europe are not a new phenomenon, but the surge of independent paramilitaries that emerged the last decade is unprecedented. This paper investigates the relationship between their emergence, motivations and values of their members and their territorial identity.

Paper long abstract:

Paramilitary groups in Central-Eastern Europe are not a new phenomenon, but the surge of independent paramilitaries that emerged the last decade is unprecedented. This paper investigates the relationship between their emergence, motivations, worldviews and value trees of their members and how they are related to their territorial identity. It will focus on answering three main questions: 1. Why did these groups emerged? 2. Why and what types of people join them? 3. Is their identity fused with territoriality, and if it is, what came first, and is it a cause or a result of their membership?

Answers to these questions will be demonstrated on two case studies - two paramilitary groups, one coming from Slovakia, another from Ukraine. The useful difference comes from the fact that one has no war experience, while the other one has, which allows us to see how motivations, values and worldview can change, including internal dynamics of the group, when the reason for its existence - which ultimately is to increasing the competence in organized violence of its members - comes to existence. Methods used to obtain data include field research such as long-term embedded participant observation, text and audiovisual media production content analysis of groups and its members, and more quantitative tools such as psychological (Big Five mini-IPIP) and cognitive-neuroscientific questionnaires (MFQ + customized) distributed among members of the groups, combined with similar data obtained from general population for comparison of differences between the studied groups and general society.