printMilitary Disobedience as a Social Phenomenon in a Special Military Operation Situation (a qualitative study)
Filimonov O.V.
Dr. Sci. (Soc.), Prof., Chief Researcher, All-Russian Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russia, Moscow, Russia ofilimonov@yandex.ru
Filimonov O.V. Military Disobedience as a Social Phenomenon in a Special Military Operation Situation (a qualitative study). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 3. P. 130-142
The article is devoted to the study of military disobedience (from latent forms of refusal to perform combat missions to unauthorized abandonment of duty stations) during the special military operation (SМO) in Ukraine in 2022–2025. Based on focused in-depth interviews with 25 servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardiya), the key causes, dynamics and consequences of failures have been identified. A paired comparison of responses is used in two groups consisting of servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Russian Guard, with an emphasis on qualitative analysis. The main conclusions point to the predominance of pragmatic reasons (shock from mobilization, misinformation about service life, material motives, distrust of commanders, problems of rotation and provision), rather than ideological or moral and ethical (pacifism or religion are extremely rare, yielding to the cognitive dissonance between media and reality). The facts of failures are minimized by the authority of management, timely rotation and prevention. The limitations of the study are related to the high sensitivity of the data and formal prohibitions on disclosing information about those who refuse to perform tasks in the combat area. These findings indicate the urgent need to rethink approaches to personnel management in the combat zone. The research is aimed at filling a gap in the sociology of deviant behavior of military personnel in the context of modern armed conflict.
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