The New Russian Identity and the Burden of the Soviet Past

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-102
Author(s):  
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Russian Identity ◽  
Geopolitical Context

This chapter explores the difficult historical and geopolitical context that the new Russia found itself in as it emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The anti-communist ideological choice of Russia’s ruling elites stood uncomfortably with Russia’s status as the main successor to the Soviet Union. Yeltsin’s government underplayed the importance of symbolic issues in the 1990s. As a result, Russian society found itself in a state of symbolic collapse and void that, in combination with painful economic and social realities, led to a widely shared sense of confusion, shame, and anxiety.

scholarly journals Characteristics of shadow economy in stagnation era in USSR

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-70
Author(s):  
Ilia Valerievich Mametev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Shadow Economy ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
State Control ◽  
Illegal Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
The 1960S

The article focuses on the problems of shadow economy, such as the illegal activity, as well as a legal activity hidden from the state control, which became an integral part of the life of the Soviet Union in the period of stagnation. The development of the shadow sector was connected, first of all, with the inability of the command-administrative system to take into account the demands of the population for certain goods and services. There have been examined prerequisites for the emergence of the shadow economy and the stages of its development in the society that built communism in the 1960s–1980s. The shadow economy contributed to the growth of corruption and criminalization, initiated the racket in the 1990s and significantly affected the public consciousness of the Soviet citizens and, later, the mentality of modern Russian society

Russian Organized Crime: Its History, Structure and Function

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Albini ◽  
R.E. Rogers ◽  
Victor Shabalin ◽  
Valery Kutushev ◽  
Vladimir Moiseev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Client Relationships ◽  
And Function

In analyzing Russian organized crime, the authors describe and classify the four major forms of organized crime: 1) political-social, 2) mercenary, 3) in-group, and 4) syndicated. Though the first three classifications of the aforementioned types of organized crime existed throughout Soviet history, it was the syndicated form that began to emerge in the late 1950's, expanding during the corrupt Breznev years (1964–82), exploding during perestroika, and reaching pandemic levels after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. The abrupt transformation of the Russian society from a centralized command economy to one driven by the forces of market capitalism created the socio-pathological conditions for the malignant spread of mercenary and especially syndicated organized crime. New criminals syndicates were created by an alliance of criminal gangs/groups and former members of the Soviet Union's communist nomenklatura (bureaucracy) and the consequence was the criminalization of much of the Russian economy. The social structure of these syndicates is based on a loose association of patron-client relationships rather than a centralized hierarchical system; their function is to provide illicit goods/services desired by the people. The authors conclude their study by emphasizing that what has taken place in Russia is not peculiar to the Russian people, but exemplifies what can happen to societies that experience rapid and intense social change.

Does russian society need «civil religion»?

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav Varganov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
The Russian Federation

At the present stage of development of the Russian Federation, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ideological bonds of the people disappeared. In these conditions, the "well-wishers" of various stripes are persistently trying to fi ll the resulting vacuum. The people themselves and their leadership are also in search of a national idea that can unite all Russians into a single nation. One of the options for a possible new national idea, according to some scientists, is the so-called "civil religion". Is it suitable for the Russian society?

Punk in Russia: From the “Declassed Elements” to the Class Struggle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Gololobov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Right

This chapter discusses the evolution of punk in Russia since its inception at the end of the 1970s. It pays particular attention to the changing perception of class belonging and the political engagement of the punk scene in Russia. Whereas in the West punk was a political movement closely associated with its working-class background, in the Soviet Union it emerged as a protest of middle-class intellectuals fighting for the right to be different and to stand out from the uniformed workers’ and peasants’ collective. This defined the particular stand of early Russian punk toward the genre’s social engagement and political appeal. Working-classness and political commitment—initial conditions of punk identity in the West—became something early Russian punk was positioned against. The dramatic transformation of Russian society over the following decades inevitably affected the cultural ideology of Russian punk, and from the 1990s onward it had to find its place and defend its significant difference amid the realities of “wild” neoliberal capitalism. The chapter shows how in Russia punk evolved from being a highly individualistic and apolitical practice to one of the most radical and politically committed scenes, closely affiliated with other struggles on the Left.

Forms of Social Solidarity in Russia and the Soviet Union

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hosking
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Basic Concept ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Village

Traditional interpretations of Russian society rest on a contrast between Russian authoritarianism and the liberties of Western societies. According to these interpretations, Russia right up to the twentieth century was a ‘patrimonial monarchy’ in which there was no distinction between sovereignty and ownership, so that the tsar's subjects were literally his slaves. There is no denying the highly authoritarian nature of the Russian state, and, in its twentieth-century hypostasis, its unique capacity to penetrate and affect the lives of ordinary people. But the image of slavery is overdone and partly misleading. At the base of the Russian power structure throughout the tsarist centuries was the village commune. The basic concept underlying the functioning of the village commune was krugovaya poruka, literally ‘circular surety’, but perhaps better translated as ‘joint responsibility’. This chapter discusses forms of social solidarity in Russia and the Soviet Union, focusing on the enterprise and the communal apartment as twin arenas of the daily lives of the majority of the country's townspeople.

Figury dzieciństwa w militarystycznym dyskursie w Związku Radzieckim

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Wojciech Siegień
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The One

The article presents the use of childhood figures in the process of constructing a militaristic discourse in Russian society. The author also tries to identify ways to use similar figures of childhood in different historical and political contexts. Comparative analysis was related to the figures taken from the reality of the Soviet Union and modern Russia. The method of analysis was based on a narrative analysis. Analysing propaganda broadcasts at the syntactic and paradigmatic level, the paper shows that propaganda texts created in different times use similar measures plots distant in time use similar measures. The use of figures of childhood appears to be the one of the most effective tools of military propaganda in Russia.

Assessing Human Rights in Russia: Not to Miss the Forest for the Trees A Response to Preclik, Schönfeld and Hallinan

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 349-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav Starzhenetskii
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Implementation Of Standards

AbstractLooking fourteen years into the past, Russia has made enormous progress in reforming its legal system in order to ensure human-rights protection under the Convention. This process of reform is still ongoing. The causes of the existing difficulties in the area of human-rights protection are better explained in terms of difficulties with implementation of standards in the Russian legal system rather than any antagonism between Russian and European human-rights attitudes. There are several groups of violations of the ECHR that need to be analyzed separately because of the different nature of the problems. Some of them reflect structural and practical problems of the Russian legal system immanent in a transition period of reforms and of the dismantling of old regulations and attitudes; others may be accounted for by the lack of proper (efficient, adequate and balanced) measures and solutions to address the numerous new challenges that Russian society is facing after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are many examples that provide evidence that Russia is trying to amend its legal and political system to meet the requirements of the Convention.

scholarly journals British Requiem for the Peasantry in the USSR: Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
Tatiana N. Krasavchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Radical Transformation

The subject of this interdisciplinary article is the case of British journalists Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge. In 1933 they were the first and the only ones to draw the world’s attention to the tragedy in the USSR: Soviet power destroyed the foundation of traditional Russian society, i.e. the peasantry — for the sake of the rapid industrialisation of the country, the socialisation of agriculture and the radical transformation of man. The price of this new “main revolution” (according to G. Jones) or experiment, which originated in the brains of “rootless urbanists” — Bolsheviks (Muggeridge) were human-induced famine, death of millions of peasants in Ukraine, Volga, Cuban, and Rostov-on-Don regions. But fascinated by the embodiment of the idea of utopia, as well as proceeding from the interests of Realpolitik, the West ignored this tragedy. The article examines the conflict between the personality — Jones and society, Soviet and Western, as evidence to the fact that “a man can be destroyed but not defeated” (Hemingway). The subject of “famine” was developed in the works of A. Koestler, G. Orwell, research of R. Conquest, D. Rayfield, who in their ideas and opinions followed Jones and Muggeridge. Views on Russia of the latter ones and of an influential New York Times correspondent in Moscow — Walter Duranty, who in 1932 got a Pulitzer prize for his deceitful reports denying the famine in the Soviet Union, are presented here as ethically and culturally opposite: Stalin’s apologist Duranty viewed Russia as a country of Asians, of born slaves; Jones and Muggeridge saw it as a tragic country which was losing its mighty human potential — peasantry and natural course of development, and both of them anticipated the collapse of the Soviet regime. And the Soviet civilization collapsed, though 60 years later, for it was doomed: it is impossible to build Heaven on blood — to achieve world harmony at the cost of “a tear of a child” (Dostoevsky), i. e. the suffering of innocent people.

scholarly journals الثورة الروسية عام 1917

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (104) ◽  
pp. 1552-1590
Author(s):  
م.د. نجلاء عدنان حسين
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
The Russian Empire

       The Russian Revolution of 1917, or the Bolshevik Revolution, was one of the most important historical events in Europe during the First World War. This revolution changed the course of Russian history. Its outbreak led to the formation of the Soviet Union, which was dismantled in the late 20th century. Because of a number of popular unrest and protests against the rule of Russian tsars and the Russian Empire, whose reign was characterized by the slow development of the country because of the existence of a political system subject to autocratic regimes and the control of nobles and landlords in all aspects of life in Russia, made the Russian society in the late century Nineteen rural people in the majority of workers and peasants, with the influence of the clergy and the imperial palace, accompanied by a primitive social structure, a backward economy and an autocratic government. Life in Russia was in the style of the Middle Ages. Russia retreated from the European industrial revolution until 1860, This led the people to wage a revolt against the Russian reactionary tsarist government in 1917. It was one of the most famous leaders of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, who was called the " Revolutionaries of this revolution the Bolsheviks name or Almnschwk means the majority.

scholarly journals Chapaev as a Media Object: from the Civil War to the Black Lives Matter Movement

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-209
Author(s):  
Daniil A. Anikin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
War Memory ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Media Object

The article explores the dynamics of the image of V.I. Chapaev in the Soviet and post-Soviet media space. Using the theory of post-memory by M. Hirsch and S. O’Donoghue as methodology of research, the author analyzes the transformation of the main characteristics of the image, its place in Russian historical memory and in the cultural tradition. V.I. Chapaev became one of the most significant characters in the Soviet cultural tradition. After the fall of the Soviet Union the image of Chapaev however retained its significance in the context of rethinking the Soviet heritage. The article highlights the following stages of transformation of V.I. Chapaev’s image: the inclusion in the "founding myth" and gradual transformation into a Soviet epic hero (crowding out collective trauma); debunking the heroic status within the framework of the "carnival culture" and turning into a character of anecdotes (de-traumatization in the process of post-memory formation); transformation into a hero of Internet memes (transformation of post-memory and de-actualization of the themes of the Civil War). The author argues that the burst of memes depicting Chapaev in 2020 demonstrates a post-ironic attitude to the Black Lives Matter movement in Russian society. The author concludes that the fact that Chapaev’s image was included in a fundamentally different political and cultural context demonstrates that the symbolic potential of the Civil War memory in Russia is entirely exhausted and can no longer serve as a tool for the formation of commemorative practices.

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