From Frunze to Bishkek: Soviet Territorial Youth Formations and Their Decline in the 1990s and 2000s

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Nasritdinov ◽  
Philipp Schröder
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Young People ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
History Of

This article presents an “alternative urban history” of Bishkek (Frunze). We describe the history of Soviet streets and of the everyday life of young people, whose narratives fit neither the Soviet nor the post-Soviet history textbooks. Yet, these stories are extremely important, rich, and unique. They reveal the complex dynamics of the social organization of urban territories in cities of Soviet origin. The research has shown that the territorial youth culture of Frunze had much in common with similar developments in cities all across the Soviet Union. At the same time, it developed its own particular features, complexities, and diversities due to specific local conditions. The study also provides insights into the power of territory. It reveals how identities, everyday practices, and the socialization of young people were embedded in the specific geographies of the Kyrgyz capital.

scholarly journals Współczesne praktyki upamiętniania Wielkiej Wojny Ojczyźnianej w Kazachstanie

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
Albina Sowietowna Żanbosinowa
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Social ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Power ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The history of the Great Patriotic War has now become a hostage to political games and the ambitions of a national power. The collapse of the Soviet Union not only led to the development of the republics, but also transformed the politics of memory concerning Soviet history. This article analyses contemporary practices of commemorating the Great Patriotic War in Kazakhstan. It is one of the few Central Asian republics that continues to celebrate 9 May. The author analyses cultural memory in the post-Soviet area using the example of Kazakhstan and shows how contemporary practices of commemorating the Great Patriotic War developed. She also shows the state practices of the social and communicative transmission of the history of Kazakhstan’s participation in the Great Patriotic War.

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.

scholarly journals THE USSR THROUGH THE EYES OF MODERN FINNISH WRITERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-466
Author(s):  
Helena Soini ◽  
Irina Matashina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
World Community ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Value ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the image of the USSR, which is formed in the fiction of Finland in the XX-XXI centuries. Attention is paid to both prose and poetic works. Each of the selected authors presents the reader a special view of the history of the Soviet Union and adjacent countries, makes an attempt to see well-known events in a new way, show them from the point of view of the Finnish Swedes, Finns, Estonians, pay attention to new details of history. The article compares the positions of writers of different generations: the group of «flame-bearers» of the early XX century («Tulenkantajat»), who reflected the interest of the world community in the emergence of a young Soviet state, and our contemporaries for the same era. The problems that exist in Soviet society are becoming noticeable. Writers try to find a balance between the positive and negative aspects of Soviet history, to show the fate of a particular person. Authors are also interested in outstanding representatives of Russian culture and history (for example, Dostoevsky and Gogol). Memories of writers about their stay in the USSR influence the formation of the figurative system of their works. The object of the image is not only specific people, but also cities: Leningrad, Murmansk, Moscow, the impression of them is extrapolated to the country as a whole. The personality of the writer, reflected in the choice of the historical period, the main character and the point of view on the history of the USSR, gives special value and uniqueness to each of the selected novels and poems.

The Question of the Perpetrator in Soviet History

Slavic Review ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Viola
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes

The question of the perpetrator is largely uncharted territory in the history of the Soviet Union. The term is rarely used in the historiography of the Stalinist Soviet Union. In part, this omission is based upon a reluctance to go beyond Iosif Stalin in assigning agency or responsibility for the immense crimes of his reign. In part, the omission derives from decades-long restrictions on archival access. Lynne Viola begins with an exploration of the postwar trajectories of the historiographies of the mid-twentieth century's classically paired “totalitarian” regimes in order to understand the relative absence of “perpetrator studies” for the Stalinist 1930s. She then examines the question of the Soviet perpetrator, less to demarcate who the perpetrator was than to offer a conceptualization of the range of factors that enabled, conditioned, and shaped their violent acts. Intended to raise questions for further study, Viola's article is complemented by comments from Wendy Goldman and Peter Fritzsche.

Beyond Species: Il’ya Ivanov and His Experiments on Cross-Breeding Humans with Anthropoid Apes

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Rossiianov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
General View ◽  
Primate Research ◽  
Mary Douglas ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

ArgumentI believe that some pollutions are used as analogies for expressing a general view of the social order.Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (Douglas 1966, 14)The possibility of crossing humans with other anthropoid species has been discussed in fiction as well as in scientific literature during the twentieth century. Professor Il’ya Ivanov’s attempt to achieve this was crucial for the beginning of organized primate research in the Soviet Union, and remains one of the most interesting and controversial experiments that was ever done on non-human primates. The possibility of removing the boundary that separates humans from other animal species, apes in particular, is loaded with important political meaning and violates cultural and ethical taboos. The history of Ivanov’s scientific experiment thus helps to reveal some of the twentieth-century’s important cultural conventions and hidden assumptions about human nature, species, and social hierarchy.

scholarly journals Emancipation Through Communism: The Ideology of A. M. Kollontai

Slavic Review ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Evans Clements
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Free Love ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Welfare ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Experiment

Traditionally in surveys of Soviet history, if Alexandra Kollontai is mentioned she is presented briefly as the advocate of the “glass of water theory of sex,” a woman who practiced free love as freely as she preached it. The lecturer then moves on to more serious concerns, having ignored the history of a tormented, perceptive woman intimately involved in the early Soviet experiment in female emancipation. Kollontai advocated far more than free love, and the role she played was far greater than that of mistress to Alexander Shliapnikov. From 1917 until her departure from the Soviet Union in 1923 she held positions of major importance in the young government and in the Bolshevik party. Kollontai worked first as an agitator in 1917, then took the post of commissar of state welfare from November 1917 to March 1918, when she resigned in protest against the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. In 1921 she joined the Workers' Opposition, adding to Shliapnikov's proposals for trade-union reform her own call for party and government democratization and giving articulate voice to those demands in an often-cited pamphlet, The Workers' Opposition. Throughout the revolutionary years she was recognized as a major authority on the problems of women and child care. Since Kollontai did play an important role in the early period of Soviet history, her personality and ideology warrant study. That study in turn reveals a woman who perceived the problems of womanhood with clarity and who wrote about and sought a liberation beyond the comprehension of many of her contemporaries.

scholarly journals From Dreams to Disillusionment: A Socio-Cultural History of the American Space Program

Ad Americam ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
Rafał Kuś ◽  
Patrick Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Space Program ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Insight Into

This article offers an insight into the history of the U.S. space program, including its cultural and political aspects. Starting from the vision of space as a new field of peaceful and exciting exploration, predominant in the first half of the 20th century, moving through the period of the intensive and eventually fruitful Cold War competition between the two belligerent ideological blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union, and ending with the present-day cooling of the space enthusiasm, it focuses on the main actors and eventsof the century-long struggle for reaching the stars. The article is based in part on primary journalistic sources in order to capture the social atmosphere of the times it focuses on. It points out to the mid-1960s as the time when the noble aspirations and optimism of the early cosmic endeavors started to succumb to the pressure of reality, which caused the overwhelming stagnation of space initiatives, effectively ending the Golden Age of extraterrestrial exploration. This argument is backed by an analysis of historical developments leading to and following the American conquest of the Moon.

scholarly journals SUBCULTURES OF PROVINCE: A TRIBUTE TO THE CAPITAL'S FASHION OR A REQUEST FROM THE YOUTH SPHERE? (ON MATERIALS OF THE HIP-HOP SUBCULTURE)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Yu. A Kuzovenkova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Young People ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Youth Subcultures

The article discusses the causes that led to the spread of hip-hop subculture in regional cities of Russia. We decompose the time period covering the end of the 1990s - the beginning of 2000s. Material for the study are semistructured interviews taken from representatives of this subculture during this period. Fashion for this subculture from Moscow is not the only reason for the spread of hip-hop in Samara. The study showed that the spread of hip-hop in Samara was strongly influenced by the social situation in which young people lived in the first decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Young people felt a deep social and spiritual crisis in the country. There were several youth subcultures in the city in this background: skinheads, rastamans, rockers, hip-hop. The materials of the interviews allow us to say that a choice of young people among these subcultures bases on their priorities and values. The representatives of hip-hop have two key priorities: a healthy lifestyle and creative selfrealization. Subculture of hip-hop has become for teenager’s special cultural space that is different from the dominant cultural which had strong value uncertainty. We believe that the spread of the hip-hop subculture in regional cities was not only a tribute to the capital fashion, but also a means of overcoming the social crisis arised from the collapse of the USSR.

scholarly journals Introduction: A New History of Russian Science

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei Kojevnikov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Soviet Science ◽  
Russian Science ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Upheaval

Like almost everything in the Soviet Union, the discipline of history of science and technology altered dramatically during the social upheaval of Gorbachev’s perestroika, in some ways that were predictable, and in other ways that were not. One new direction of research that has since grown into a bourgeoning field – the social history of Russian and Soviet science – is represented by the articles in this volume. This short introduction cannot substitute for a real historiographical study, which will probably appear in due course (see also Gerovitch 1996, Gerovitch 1998, Graham 1993). This is rather a personal memoir about the origin and motivations behind the approach; as incomplete as a participant’s memoir can be, but with some benefits of retrospective hindsight. Ten years ago, at a time of great fluidity in minds and intellectual agendas, many developments were driven primarily by intuition and the sheer momentum of Zeitgeist; now, as things have become somewhat settled, there is time for more reflection.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
Capitalist World

Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in the Handbook, written by a highly international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, it is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is ‘global’, too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history ‘from above’ and ‘from below’, to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. Where appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The Handbook provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.

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