RebelEast

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In July 2020, the Khabarovsk region emerged as a new center of political protest in Putin's Russia. The arrest of the popularly electedlocal governor Sergei Furgal on murder charges associated with the deaths of two businessmen triggered unprecedentedly largedemonstrations against the Kremlin's intervention in local affairs. My project explores the massive legitimacy crisis the federalgovernment faces in the region through an ethnography of grassroots social movements in Komsomolsk-na-Amure, the largestmilitary-industrial base in the Russian Far East. While there is a rich literature documenting the cultural practices of indigenous groupsof the Far East as well as forms of economic transborder exchange with Korea, China, and Japan, the urban and political life of thisregion remains critically understudied. Drawing on archival research, discourse analysis, and fieldwork with Komsomolsk's citizensengaged in different forms of community organizing, I analyse the legacy of Soviet industrialization in Eastern Russia and ways inwhich it continues to shape the regional identities of local residents. Specifically, I focus on how the socialist ethics of the Sovietperiod intertwine with the informal ethics of the Gulag's criminal subculture, in structuring the political imaginaries of Komsomolsk'sactivists as well as their attitudes towards the federal center. My project offers a novel take on the consequences of the post-Sovietculture of informality by showing that it can provide a powerful basis for political mobilization in contexts where an unwritten socialcontract is violated by state actors. In addition to theorizing the political dimension of the ethics of informality, my project makes acontribution to the emerging literature on forms of popular protest in contemporary Russia by destabilizing the stereotype of the"silent" provinces as the base of President Putin's support and showing the key role regional mobilization plays in challenging theKremlin.