Images of young people preparing molotov cocktails to resist the armies of Vladimir Putin have been multiplying on the Web for a few days and a week after the start of Russian “military operations” in Ukraine. If the whole world has been traumatized by certain images of child soldiers, looking haggard and armed, contemporary history, and more recently the conflict in the East, has revealed another phenomenon, that of teenagers. -fighters. At the crossroads between childhood and adulthood, the fear of war and the desire for peace, how do some young people decide to resist? 20 minutes questioned Manon Pignotlecturer in contemporary history at the University of Picardy and historian specializing in children’s experience of war.
What is this notion of “juvenile commitment” that we find at the heart of your book, “The call of war: Adolescents in combat, 1914-1918”?
The idea was to get away from the notion of child soldier and to make the expression more complex in order to define a more varied typology. According to Unicef there are between 250,000 and 300,000 child soldiers in the world today. And indeed, the majority of them are abducted, subjected to forced combat and the condition of slaves. But there are also teenagers, who in certain circumstances choose to join the armed forces. The reasons ? They are ideological and pragmatic: I fight for a cause that is dear to me and/or I fight simply not to die.
Is such a commitment possible in Ukraine today?
For the moment we have no figures on the number of young people enlisted in the conflict, it is too early. But if we observe the news and especially the social networks, we notice a real civil resistance on the Ukrainian side, also make young people. In a context of guerrilla warfare, such as the one Ukraine has experienced in recent days, the feeling of mortal danger is everywhere. And the speeches of the president of the Kremlin do not help matters. Vladimir Putin uses a veritable Stalinist vocabulary, which suggests a fatal outcome for the country. The fear emanating from these threats can therefore be very driving force for these younger generations and push many of them to personally enroll in the resistance.
Is this “desire for adventure” which you make effective in your work also the reason for this enlistment?
In times of war, we find ourselves in a very specific temporality which gives us the feeling of living an extraordinary moment. War upsets social norms and creates chaos with it. But with this chaos is also born an effect of opportunity, of windfall. Thus these teenagers who often seek themselves in their daily lives, will find a certain meaning in enrolment. Going to war is the possibility of living an adventure, of being part of history in a way.
But what are the consequences of this commitment on the development of these adolescents?
German psychogeriatricians showed after the Second World War that young people who had enlisted suffered surprisingly less from post-traumatic stress disorder than those who had not enlisted. In the case where the young person does not lose his life or does not have physical consequences, paradoxically, having participated in the conflict may be beneficial or at least less traumatic. Sometimes the weight of commitment and belonging to a cause is less heavy to bear than that of the trauma that war can cause.