Understanding Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ through a longer-term historical-cultural lens of the history of the Soviet Union and Imperial Russia – some developing thoughts ¹

This article looks at Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine through what the author would describe as a ‘historical-cultural’ lens - one that not only considers elements that would typically be described as ‘strategic culture’, but also wider ‘military culture’, wider societal culture and ‘mentalities’. The author looks at ways in which wider Russian culture has impacted military and ‘strategic’ culture in Russia both prior to and during the period of the ‘Special Military Operation’ - factors going some way to explaining how, during the war in Ukraine, the Russian armed forces went from the failure of the opening phase of the operation on the Kyiv axis to the relatively successful progress, albeit it slow and methodical, made by the Russian army in the Donbass from late 2023 onwards. In doing so it makes the case for a broadening of common understandings of what is typically described as ‘strategic culture’ to move well beyond a focus on just ‘strategy’, to more fully understand contemporary militaries at war.