| Abstract: | Emotions played a key role in the mass rallies that tookplace in Moscow and other major Russian cities in 2011–13. A comparison between the emotions expressed in anti-government and pro-government rallies shows that participants shared similar views on social order and social justice. However, similar emotions articulated in different locations were imbued with different tonalities and rhetoric. The grassroots horizontal cooperation at the civil society rallies opened up space for crisscrossing communication and interaction among demonstrators, which created vivid, self-organized emotions. The vertical structure of mobilization at the progovernment rallies, which was based on coercion, impeded free communication among its participants, closing off communication in the space of labor collectives, which hindered the production of emotions “from below” and prevented the communication of emotional spontaneity: the protesters could only adopt the emotions broadcast from the stage. |
