2 - The Politics of the Donbas ‘Republics’

Summary

This chapter examines political and ideological projects in the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’ (DNR and LNR), from the outbreak of the Russian–Ukrainian War in early 2014 until after the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. It focuses on the ‘Republics’’ leadership’s search for historical, ideological, and identity-based justifications for their declarations of ‘independence’ from Ukraine in 2014. After an initial phase of power centralisation, both ‘Republics’ settled into a comfortable non-ideological status, strongly tied to but never united with Russia, with neither their past nor future clearly vocalised. Neither of the two ‘Republics’ should therefore be considered projects that are ideological in nature. Instead, the ideological underpinnings of both statelets have always been fractured, erratic, and ad hoc.