Marriage of Convenience? Collaboration between Nationalists and Liberals in the Russian Opposition, 2011–12

The Russian “winter of discontent” 2011–12, when tens of thousands demonstrated against the Putin regime, turned out to be a passing incident only, but it raises a number of important questions. Specifically, we would want to know why it suddenly was possible to unite the many disparate elements in the Russian opposition and make them march in unison. This article focuses on one crucial aspect only: the collaboration between liberals and Russian nationalists. These two groups have a long history of distrust, even antagonism, but in the 2011–12 opposition cycle their leaders stood shoulder to shoulder on the podium. We may hypothesize that the willingness of liberals and right‐wing nationalists to set aside old grudges in a concerted effort to topple the regime was a major factor behind the early successes of the mobilization. At the same time, it can also be argued that precisely this new all‐embracing alliance was a weak point in the strategy of the opposition by tearing it apart from within. In this article I use social movement theory to get a handle on this conundrum. In particular, I look at what this theory can tell us about the assets and drawbacks of creating broad alliances across ideological chasms. I also discuss public perceptions in Russia of the anti‐Putin demonstrations, based on a new survey from October‐November 2014.