Voenkomat shouldn't be a nice place with couches: the relationships between the military, potential conscripts and the digital in Russia

Abstract (English)

The report will reveal the impact of digitalization and digitalization on the interaction between potential recruits and military recruitment offices. The report is based on material collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews. The included observation took place on September 26, 2024, when I visited the Unified Recruitment Point (URP) in Moscow. The EPP is a digitized military enlistment office that unites all military commissariats in the city of Moscow. One cannot leave this institution until one has completed all the activities in the order of their electronic queue (as a ticket, the visitor is given a card that he or she can tap on the screens to find out about his or her further destination). A total of 4 interviews were recorded. The interviews were recorded with potential conscripts who had the experience of visiting “old type” military recruitment offices (without digitalization) at different times. All of them are university students and came to the commissariats to obtain deferments and used their digital devices for different purposes within these institutions. All military commissariats formally prohibit the use of digital devices by visitors, but only the EPP has taken this principle to its logical conclusion: all equipment is taken away at the entrance to the institution, while in regular military commissariats this does not happen, despite the formal prohibition. At the same time, the EPP itself is “armed” with digital tools.