Generational and Geographic Effects on Collective Memory of the USSR

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 156-175
Author(s):  
Rachel Mohr ◽  
Kate Pride Brown
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Personal Memory ◽  
Cultural Reconstruction ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Opinions ◽  
Geographic Effects

This study examines memory of the Soviet Union and political opinions in modern Russia through qualitative, semi-structured interviews across generations in two Russian cities. The study aims to explore the differences in memory and meaning of the Soviet Union across generation and geography, and to connect those differences to political dispositions in modern Russia. Respondents were asked about their impressions of the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia, and responses were coded for emergent themes and trends. The research finds that youth bifurcate along geographic lines; respondents in St. Petersburg were more likely to reject Soviet ideals than their counterparts in Yoshkar-Ola. The former also tended to prefer liberalism and globalization, while the latter expressed greater nationalism. Older respondents showed no distinct geographic trend, but gave more nuanced assessments of the Soviet Union due to the power of personal memory over cultural reconstruction. In younger respondents, these findings indicate that living in a cosmopolitan metropolis may condition interpretations of the Soviet past and influence contemporary political identity toward globalization. Youths living in smaller cities have less interaction with other global cities and therefore may have more conservative perceptions of the Soviet Union and Russia.

The Soviet Legacy in Thinking about Fascism

2021 ◽  
pp. 28-42
Author(s):  
Marlene Laruelle
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Soviet Legacy ◽  
Second World

This chapter goes back in time to look at the Soviet construction of the Russian term fashizm and some of the ambiguities that the Soviet society cultivated toward the term and its historical personification, Nazi Germany. It recalls that the term fascism (fashizm), in Soviet times, belonged more to an emotional than to an analytical lexicon. The chapter also discusses Russia's history and Russians' memories of the Second World War, called the Great Patriotic War in Russian (Velikaia otechestvennaia voina) and Victory Day (Den´ pobedy). It reviews how the cult of war is intimately linked to the Brezhnev era and provided the context in which commemoration of the Great Patriotic War was institutionalized as a sacred symbol of the Soviet Union, a confirmation of the soundness of the socialist system and the unity of its peoples. The chapter then argues that the very solemnity of Soviet anti-fascism, and its centrality to the country's political identity constitute the fundaments inherited from Soviet times on the basis of which the notion of fascism is operationalized in today's Russia. Ultimately, the chapter further elaborates the three main sources of the Soviet's cryptic fascination with Nazi Germany and source of knowledge about fashizm: the Nazi propaganda, criminal culture, and cinema and culture.

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanat Kundakbayeva ◽  
Didar Kassymova
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Common System ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government

The general perception of Western analysts and observers is that the nation-states created as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union all treat the memory of the dark, repressive aspects of the Stalinist regime in public spaces as a symbolic element in the creation of a new post-Soviet identity [Denison, Michael. 2009. “The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.”Europe-Asia Studies61 (7): 1167–1187]. We argue that the government of Kazakhstan employs non-nationalistic discourse in its treatment of Stalinist victims’ commemoration in a variety of forms, through the creation of modern memorial complexes at the sites of horrific Soviet activity (mass burial places, labor camps, and detention centers), purpose-built museum exhibitions, and the commemorative speeches of its president and other officials. Kazakhstan's strategy in commemorating its Soviet past is designed to highlight the inclusiveness of repression on all peoples living in its territory at that time, not just Kazakhs, thereby assisting in bringing together its multinational and multiethnic society. Thus, the official stance treats this discourse as an important symbolic source of shaping the collective memory of the nation, based on “a general civil identity without prioritizing one ethnic group over another — a national unity, founded on the recognition of a common system of values and principles for all citizens” [Shakirova, Svetlana. 2012. “Letters to Nazarbaev: Kazakhstan's Intellectuals Debate National Identity.” February 7. Accessed July 28, 2015.http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/discussion/letters-nazarbaev-kazakhstans-intellectuals-debate-national-identity].

scholarly journals “RED” ODESSA IN THE EYES OF N. KAZANDZAKIS: DOCUMENTARY-ARTISTIC TWO of the AUTHOR’s worlds (based on the travelogue «Traveling: Russia»)

2019 ◽  
pp. 235-249
Author(s):  
Oksana Snigovska ◽  
Andriy Malakhiti
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Personal Memory ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Mode Of Life ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Of Greece

The article explores the features of documentary works of art, in particular letters, articles, travel notes, newspaper publications, photo and video materials, which formed the basis of the travelogue «Travelling: Russia» by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. It describes his trips to the Soviet Union in the 20s of the XX century. A complex of themes and motives typical of travelogue, topos is considered, topographic plots focused on the presentation of facts and situations are highlighted. The subject of the image in travel notes and feature articles by N. Kazantzakis is practically everything that he sees and realizes / perceives and, of course, describes: topographic environment, the beauty of nature, mode of life, social relations and the psychology of people. The wandering figure, breaking away from usual life, overcoming the barrier of existence, which forces the author and readers to experience borderline states, ask extreme questions, seek for the answers, fulfilling the mission of the travelogue. Getting into other, unfamiliar conditions, the traveller either gets used to them, or evaluates them, transforming them for himself and for the others. Travelogue N. Kazantzakis «Traveling: Russia» does not always adequately reflect the real space of travel. The repeating routes of Greece – Odesa – Kiev trips by sea and further by rail receive different irradiation depending on optimistic (at the beginning of his philosophical and religious journey) or catastrophic with a touch of disappointment (at the end of his ideological search) premonitions of the author. So, the construction of the travelogue of the Greek writer was greatly influenced by previous trips to the same places. Nikos Kazantzakis often refers reader to facts of history, to cultural codes, to ideological oppositions, to personal memory. Oppositions Europe/Greece – Russia, Vienna – Odesa, Greeks – Russians / Ukrainians – Jews are interpreted nominally in the article, the main task of the writer seems to be a way out to the existential principles of the structure and transformation of person.

Post-Soviet collective memory: Russian youths about Soviet past

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Kasamara ◽  
Anna Sorokina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Given ◽  
Research Show

The research is focused on the image of the Soviet Union and that of its successor — the Russian Federation — in the minds of the Russian student youth. The concept of collective memory, being interdisciplinary and highly debatable, has been used in the given paper in its broad socio-cultural sense meaning the attitudes of interconnected social groups regarding the past and the present. The participants of the poll were 100 students from the leading Moscow universities. They had been born after the Soviet Union collapse, so, the majority of them have a very obscure idea of the Soviet reality, simultaneously feeling nostalgia for the Soviet political past. The results of the research show that the image of the Soviet Union drastically differs from that of Russia in the young people’s minds being positive and negative, respectively.

Contextual effects on historical memory: Soviet nostalgia among post-Soviet adolescents

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Nikolayenko
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Original Survey

Using an original survey of adolescents in post-communist Russia and Ukraine, this study analyzes attitudes toward the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The results demonstrate how contextual factors – the republic's position within the former Soviet Union and prior history of colonization – affect the level of nostalgia among the young generation. Based upon semi-structured interviews with adolescents, the study identifies sources of positive and negative attitudes toward the Soviet demise. Furthermore, the research reveals cross-national differences in the relationship between Soviet nostalgia and national pride.

Visual Representations of “the Russian” in European Remembrance Cultures

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-313
Author(s):  
Petra Mayrhofer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Communist System ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Visual Changes

The post-communist transformation in Eastern Europe was marked by visual changes through iconoclastic actions and attempts to erase the visibility of the former communist system that was synonymous with the influence of the Soviet Union. Images of the removal and destruction of monuments have found their way into collective memory through their circulation in mass media, textbooks, films, exhibitions, and museums. This article explores the visual representation of “the Russian”1 in various European memory cultures in combination with the visual remembrance of the transformation that started in 1989. It aims to examine how images published in quality mass media in 2009 depict public memory twenty years later.

scholarly journals The Prospect of the Russian Language in Georgia. Insights from the Educated Youth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Artoni ◽  
Sabrina Longo
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
Southern Caucasus ◽  
Everyday Interaction ◽  
The Russian Language

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of the Russian language in the new-born Republics became a central issue. In the Southern Caucasus, all the Constitutions promulgated by the three Republics opted for ethnocentric language policies that accepted the titular language as the only State Language. However, the role of the Russian language as a lingua franca remained crucial for international communication and everyday interaction. It followed that it continued to play an important role also in education. The present study focuses on Georgia, where a strong derussification policy has taken place in the last decades and aims at understanding to what extent the use of Russian among the young generations has contracted. In particular, we present an analysis conducted on data collected via (i) a survey for young people consisting of questions on their sociolinguistic background and a proficiency test in Russian, and (ii) semi-structured interviews for teachers of Russian and English as Foreign Languages on the research topics.

Suppressed Remembrances

2018 ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Kristiane Janeke
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
First World War ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ideological Identity ◽  
First World

Kristiane Janeke traces the history of the Moscow Brothers’ (Soldiers’) Cemetery, using the specific case of this memorial to wartime fallen as a springboard to a wider discussion of suppressed memories of the First World War in Russia. The chapter argues that remembrance of the war was deliberately stifled as part of the Bolshevik project of creating a new ideological identity for the fledgling Soviet regime. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, there have been efforts to restore Russians’ collective memory of the First World War.

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