NEW GENERATION OF VICTORS: NARRATING THE NATION IN RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE, 2012-2019.

After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, many proposed that this state-generated, ethnically loaded "nationalist boost" enhanced the state's legitimacy by replacing the previous social contract between the Russian state and the people. This article argues for a more nuanced understanding of nationalism in contemporary Russia by asking how exactly the state leadership has portrayed the Russian nation in 2012-2019. Analyzing presidential speeches in this period, the article traces three distinctive but closely interconnected narratives of "Russianness": the narrative of the victorious nation; the narrative of the moral nation; and the narrative of the multinational but ethnically hierarchical nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]