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  • Misha Mavashi
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Conclusions

Thorough exploration of these songs by means of social network analysis of co-occurring references, bar graphs, and analyses of each reference subject shows that these artists are in fact presenting militant Slavic Nationalism. The subjects they frequently refer to and the values they are promoting to their wide listener base of Russian-speaking youth clearly correspond to the traditional ideology of Slavic supremacy.

References

Below is a list of all the references in the songs with a count of their overall frequency in the corpus. The positive and negative percentages show the proportion of said references that presents the subject in a positive or negative light. If the percentages do not add up to 100, the remainder is neutral, which was ambiguous. The corresponding descriptions summarize the meaning of the references and show how they communicate Nationalist rhetoric.

• war: 142 [+]
  • 67% Positive, 14% Negative
  • More than anything else, these songs use references to war to accentuate the struggle between good and evil. Metaphors of ideological weapons, battles, and victories urge listeners to view anyone around them with a different lifestyle, origin, or set of values as an enemy. The Slavic people must be strong and courageous to defend their nation from enemy attacks, which can be anything from alcoholism to Russian emigration to growing immigration from the Caucasus. Literal references to past wars, especially WWII, also emphasize the need to be prepared to defend the homeland from future invasions.
• strength: 71 [+]
  • 93% Positive, 1% Negative
  • In nationalist rhetoric, one unique advantage characterizes each nation—for some it's cleverness, agility, or creativity, and for the Slavic people, the advantage is strength. Historically, they emphasize the resilience and brute military force that enabled them to withstand numerous invasions and hardships, to singlehandedly win World War II, and to become the strongest world power during the Cold War and at the height of the Soviet Empire. When individuals and the community as a whole reawaken their inner strength, the Slavic nation will regain its power.
• violence: 66 [+]
  • 35% Positive, 44% Negative
  • Violence usually refers to the disordered fighting that occurs on the streets often surrounding use of drugs and alcohol, very different from the structured opposition of war. These artists blame the violence on these substances and their abusers, as well as on immigrants who have no respect for the country that is not their own.
• home: 59 [+]
  • 47% Positive, 17% Negative
  • As the context for all life experience, the native city, neighborhood, and apartment comprise a fundamental aspect of personal and collective identity. References to these places point to a common past among listeners and highlight the ubiquity of societal decay.
• family: 57 [+]
  • 72% Positive, 21% Negative
  • The nationalist ideology presented in these lyrics upholds family as one of the highest values, as the fundamental unit of the collective and the nation as a whole. Affectionate terms for "brother" and "kindred" addressing listeners and fellow Slavs project the unconditional love and sacrifice that unite the family onto the nation as a whole. Families should be racially pure, passing down the biological and cultural values of the Slavic people that grant each member the capacity for great strength of body and soul. However, this family structure is being threatened by substance abuse and immigration.
• drugs: 49 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 86% Negative
  • Like alcohol, these songs portray drug abuse as an enemy that has corrupted society. This includes any use of marijuana, as well as harder recreational drugs. They scorn drug users and dealers for their weakness and damaging behavior, while acknowledging the appeal of selling drugs due to the lack of other prospects for employment. They emphasize the negative consequences on family and friends, attempting to make drugs look as unappealing as possible.
• alcohol: 44 [-]
  • 7% Positive, 86% Negative
  • These artists see alcohol as one of the main problems afflicting their community. Promoting total abstinence, they attempt to create a social stigma surrounding all uses of alcohol by repeatedly describing all the negative consequences and condemning anyone who drinks as a lazy alcoholic.
• religion: 39 [+]
  • 85% Positive, 10% Negative
  • Russian Orthodox Christianity serves principally as a cultural tradition and also establishes some moral values. Misha Mavashi makes a point of taking music videos and photo shoots in front of Orthodox Churches to create a distinctly Slavic image that reinforces ethnic pride and adherence to cultural traditions. There are a few criticisms of corruption in the church, but that is blamed on a lack of true faith in God. They regard God as a vague supernatural figure who grants strength to those who have faith. References to the Bible, including the name 25/17 itself, treat the book as a spiritual guide.
• nature: 38 [+]
  • 68% Positive, 11% Negative
  • Frequent references to seasons, weather, and other aspects of nature emphasize the connection between the listeners and the natural world, ultimately serving to root their identity in the land of their ancestors.
• russia: 36 [+]
  • 58% Positive, 28% Negative
  • The vast expanse stretching from the Dnieper River to Eastern Siberia has lost its former glory, but as national identity is rooted in the land itself, Russians carry the responsibility to revive their Motherland from affliction.
• economy: 34 [+]
  • 3% Positive, 94% Negative
  • These artists blame corrupt politicians for destroying Russia's economy with rampant inflation and money laundering. They constantly lament the economic injustice of families who can't feed their children and war veterans who can't heat their homes in order to invoke anger in listeners and motivate reform of the system.
• death: 31 [+]
  • 65% Positive, 32% Negative
  • These artists consider death at the hand of drugs and street violence deeply shameful and distressing but regard martyrdom for the Motherland as noble and heroic.
• collective: 31 [+]
  • 71% Positive, 29% Negative
  • Collective strength and unity stand as the ultimate goal of individual self-improvement. United as brothers, each member must act for the benefit of the group—"One for all and all for one."
• faith: 29 [+]
  • 90% Positive, 10% Negative
  • Faith complements strength as one of the most important personal qualities. Personal faith in God, the nation, and the future nourishes the soul and enables personal growth.
• soul: 28 [+]
  • 86% Positive, 7% Negative
  • A vaguely religious concept, the soul constitutes the core of a person, nurtured by faith to build character. It is closely tied to the heart, which produces emotions. Slavic people are considered to be especially warm-hearted and soulful. Along with the body, strength of soul characterizes ideal members of the Slavic race.
• politics: 25 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 92% Negative
  • Like most Russians, these artists have lost all hope in the political system. They present politicians as entirely corrupt, "dogs" that take advantage of their power to embezzle money and manipulate the law for personal gain.
• homeland: 20 [+]
  • 95% Positive, 5% Negative
  • The lyrics repeatedly praise the Homeland, also calling it the Motherland and Fatherland. These terms reveal the ancestral connection through the land that bestows strength and ethnic identity upon the Slavic people. Like their ancestors, Slavs must fight to defend their unquestionably inherently holy Motherland.
• russian race: 20 [+]
  • 75% Positive, 20% Negative
  • The Russian race usually refers to the ethnic sub-group of the Slavic race native to what is now the Russian Federation. In some cases, the term is used to emphasize a fundamental difference between the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian ethnic groups, but most often serves to distinguish White Russians from the immigrants and foreigners whom they portray as the enemy. What seems like innocent patriotic love for the Russian people often implies intolerance towards other nations.
• sport: 16 [+]
  • 100% Positive, 0% Negative
  • Misha Mavashi in particular promotes physical fitness as a more socially acceptable alternative to drugs and alcohol. The cultivation of physical strength complements spiritual strength to develop true Slavic character.
• police: 16 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 88% Negative
  • Considered to be worse than most criminals, Russian police most clearly embody the political corruption, openly taking bribes and enforcing the law only when it suits their purposes.
• love: 14 [+]
  • 50% Positive, 50% Negative
  • Compared with almost any other genre of music, there are surprisingly few references to romantic love in these artists’ most popular songs.
• other race: 13 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 100% Negative
  • Other inferior races mainly include immigrants from the Caucasus as well as the Gypsies and Jews who have shared the land for hundreds of years yet remain very segregated. And no matter how long they stay, Nationalists believe that people of any other race will always be infringing on their Motherland and corrupting it with their “rotten genes.”
• ancestors: 12 [+]
  • 100% Positive, 0% Negative
  • These artists, like Nationalist rhetoric in general, regard ancestors with the utmost respect, looking up to them as role models for young people today. They most commonly portray them as strong warriors who defended the Motherland in the context of WWII and farther back from other invasions from the South and East. War is seen as a continual threat, so young people need to continue the warrior tradition of their ancestors in order to defend their homeland.
• media: 10 [+]
  • 10% Positive, 80% Negative
  • These songs remind listeners of the widely accepted criticism that the news on TV and the radio is manipulated by those in power.
• usa: 7 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 71% Negative
  • Even though Rap music originated among minority communities in the United States, after the turn of the century the genre started losing many of its ties to American pop culture. The group 25/17 pioneered much of this change with their song “Be White,” which urged Russian rap artists not to imitate American rappers. Communities of rap artists and listeners in cities all across the former Soviet Union now look to Moscow as their cultural center. Furthermore, these artists are reacting to the growing popularity of emigration to the US, chastising emigrants as betrayers of their homeland.
• sex: 6 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 100% Negative
  • Sexual promiscuity, especially for money, is greatly despised.
• folk: 6 [+]
  • 67% Positive, 0% Negative
  • References to Slavic folk traditions, including superstitions and fairy tales, idealize the Slavic past in an attempt to revive the cultural practices and create ethnic solidarity around a common background.
• slavic race: 3 [+]
  • 100% Positive, 0% Negative
  • While Slavs are generally thought to include most of the peoples native to Eastern Europe, many Russians, including these artists, use it to refer to just the Eastern Slavic peoples: Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. They consider themselves descendants of the Rus’ people from around the 10th Century.
• foreigners: 3 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 67% Negative
  • Even though there are few direct references to foreigners, the few mentions of them, as well as the nationalist rhetoric outside of these songs, exhibit strong xenophobia. Regarding any other race as inherently inferior to the Slavic people, they accuse foreigners, mostly from the Caucasus, of infringing on their land, taking their jobs, and seducing their women. Especially because it is unclear how Nationalists would like to deal with foreigners and immigrants, these ideas are often kept quiet in order to avoid trouble.
• ideology: 3 [+]
  • 100% Positive, 0% Negative
  • These artists consider their Nationalist ideology to be the truth that will spread among millions if only they get the word out.
• race: 3 [+]
  • 67% Positive, 33% Negative
  • Race, inherited by blood, primarily defines each person’s capacity for moral uprightness and personal worth.
• system: 2 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 100% Negative
  • These artists are skeptical of the system of power that controls the economy, media, and most importantly, does nothing to address the rampant social problems.
• immigrants: 1 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 100% Negative
  • Nationalists generally blame immigrants from the Caucasus for infringing on their land, taking their jobs, and seducing their women.
• tobacco: 1 [+]
  • 0% Positive, 100% Negative
  • Like all other addictive substances, these artists urge their listeners to completely abstain from smoking and fight the peer pressure in order to keep their bodies strong.

Interpretation

Our research endeavors have served to support and illuminate our initial hypothesis. Our primary references ended up as war, strength, and violence, all themes closely linked with one another and heavily emphasized by the three artists, although each takes specific contexts in the cultural framework in which these artists are working (explained in greater detail above). It may seem surprising that war is portrayed in a positive light. However, these artists frequently use metaphors of war to portray foreigners, substance abusers, politicians, and anyone with whom they disagree, as an enemy that must be defeated. The common references to war show a strong underlying "us vs. them" mentality, with the "us" consisting of members of the Russian or Slavic race who are fighting to defend their country. These themes are further strengthened by common references to collectivism and brotherhood. See our references page for examples of these and other references.

References to drugs and alcohol were also frequent, as initially suspected, with a negative connotation for both as indicated by the large number of negative attribute values in these songs (for instance, only one reference does not have a negative attribute value in both "Алкотестер" and "228 это статья такая," which are primarily concerned with alcohol and drugs, respectively) and war, with a positive connotation shown by the opposite occurrence. Because most of these artists’ songs are part of a sub-genre of Russian rap that promotes a healthy lifestyle, they repeatedly portray drugs and alcohol in a negative light in an attempt to discourage listeners from abusing these substances. These artists are trying to counter what they approach as the cultural popularity of drugs and alcohol among Russian-speaking youth by means of sarcasm, mockery, and scorn of their users.

One of the things we were most interested in were the connections between various references; which references frequently occurred in the same songs, and what this might reveal about the reasons used to motivate action and change in listeners. To explore this, we used Gephi to create a social network graph displaying these relationships, which can be viewed here. This provided important insight into the strength of connection between various themes in our corpus and some unexpected and interesting perspectives; for instance, strength has a strong connection to war, which is reasonable, but it also has a strong connection with religion, a less expected and wholly more intriguing connection. An interpretation of these types of connections reveals some of the subtler themes coursing through this decidedly brash genre.

Clinging tightly to idealized tradition with selective historical nostalgia, Nationalist rappers are reacting to inevitable globalization in the only way they know how——advocating war and closed-minded rejection of new ideas. Although they aren’t necessarily urging their listeners to start a war, the constant metaphors and reminders to be prepared for a fight are sure to invoke a mindset of cross-cultural animosity that could easily erupt into large-scale violence.

The strong beats and lyrical artistry of this new style of music that has lost all connection to its minority roots strongly appeals to young people, providing them with a stable identity as members of the Slavic nation and laying out a clear course of action for self-improvement. They promise listeners that cultivating a strong body and soul and selflessly defending the collective will give their lives meaning and purpose. The amount to which these powerful but sinister messages in Healthy Lifestyle Rap influence the young generation will determine the fate of Russia.

Future Developments

Only one English translation has been completed so far (click here), but we intend to periodically update this site with additional translations to increase accessibility to non-Russian speakers. Further research on this topic could focus on tracing the origins of these ideas to various influences throughout Soviet and Russian history, along with observing the ramifications of this genre on society and youth culture, as popular, influential, and polarizing as it is.