In a context where official language seeks to obscure the reality of the conflict, a research team led by anthropologist Sasha Arkhipova, from the social sciences department at ENS-PSL, has established an innovative platform. This 'Ethnographic Dictionary of War' compiles approximately seven thousand written testimonies, primarily complaints addressed to power institutions by Russian soldiers and their families during 2025. The objective is to reconstruct the reality experienced on the Ukrainian front by analyzing the social and linguistic practices of the Russian army.
The remote ethnographic method relies on reading these letters not as isolated narratives, but as repeated descriptions of similar situations. 'When hundreds of people independently describe the same Russian soldier's journey, using the same words, the architecture of the whole becomes visible,' explains Sasha Arkhipova. This corpus has been supplemented by exchanges in military messaging services and interviews with former soldiers.
The anthropologist distinguishes between two clashing languages: 'necolanguage' and 'trench language.' The former, imposed by the Presidential Administration, serves as propaganda, replacing terms like 'war' with 'special operation.' Non-compliance with these rules is punishable by prison. The latter, developed ' from below' within the army, aims to precisely name the reality on the ground, including threats from one's own command. Terms like 'two-hundredth' (soldier killed in action) or 'zeroed out' (soldier killed by their own commanders) illustrate this distinction.
These testimonies, accessible on a Russian-language website that has already attracted a quarter of a million visitors, defy linguistic manipulation. Necrolanguage proves insufficient against the need to narrate events, despite censorship. A book, twice the size of the website, is currently being published in Berlin.
The letters reveal that the Russian soldier's main enemy is often their own command and Ministry of Defense officials. Today's Russian army operates on two principles: prolonging time at war at all costs and ensuring benefits for superiors, often at the expense of promised sums to contract soldiers. Correspondence records the collapse of illusions, both patriotic and economic, across diverse categories of military personnel.
Language study, according to Sasha Arkhipova, is an essential tool for deciphering reality. The emergence of specific words to designate practices like extrajudicial execution or abandoning a wounded soldier testifies to their appropriation by the community and their integration into daily life. Linguistic analysis thus provides valuable precision to social sciences for understanding social processes.
These data, though 'uncomfortable,' allow for viewing the war through the eyes of its participants, without justifying the violence. They serve as an antidote to necolanguage, restoring names to events. The work ethic demands a willingness to acknowledge error and correct interpretations as new data emerges. The hope is that this work helps some avoid the front and not become victims or accomplices of a criminal war.
