Symbolic Figures of the Decembrists in the Memorial Space of Irkutsk (Early 20th Century - 1991)

Author(s):  
Yekaterina I. Krasilnikova ◽  
◽  

The author explores the problem of reflecting the collective memory of Siberians about the exiled Decembrists in the memorial space of Irkutsk at different historical stages. The aim of the article is to characterize the developing dynamics of a segment of the memorial space system that includes Irkutsk's memorial places associated with the Decembrists in the chronological framework of the Soviet period of Russian history. The study is based on the principle of historicism. The methodological reference point of the research is the problem field of memory studies; the concepts of the places of memory of P. Nora and cultural memory of J. Assmann and A. Assmann are used. The author also employs historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods. Within the framework of the Soviet period, three stages of forming the segment of the Irkutsk memorial space associated with the memory about the Decembrists were identified. The first stage, from the 1910s till 1925, reflects the general weakness of Irkutsk city residents' collective memory about the Decembrists, which was manifested in neglecting memorial sites, and the beginning of the awakening of interest in the Decembrists among the local liberal-minded intelligentsia. At the second stage, from 1925 (the 100th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising) till the 1960s, under the influence of the state politics of memory that recognized the Decembrists as the first generation of Russian revolutionaries, the intelligentsia of Irkutsk were actively forming the locus of the Decembrists' memorial space in their city. Based on the memory about the Decembrists, the intelligentsia was constructing their social identity. But the local authorities did not provide the intelligentsia with the desired support, which significantly complicated achieving the memorialization tasks. At the third stage, in the 1960s-1980s, the memory about the Decembrists' stay in Irkutsk was in demand among the local authorities, who used it especially actively during celebrations dedicated to the anniversaries of the city. Many memorable places were designated, and their protection was improved. The sharply increased attention of Irkutsk local administration and city residents to the exiled Decembrists reflected the growth of their regional identity. The author revealed the dependence of reflecting the collective memory about the Decembrists in the Irkutsk memorial space on the state and regional politics of memory, as well as on the local intelligentsia initiatives, for which the memory about the Decembrists served as one of the foundations for constructing their social identity.

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (0) ◽  
pp. 89-103
Author(s):  
Lech M. Nijakowski

The article presents the results of the systematic analysis of the resolutions of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (10th–8th terms of office) as a mechanism aimed at shaping the collective memory of the Polish society. It outlines a research field and characterizes a legislative mechanism. Further, the article discusses research techniques and methods, and presents partial research results. The author shows that commemorative resolutions are an important element of the state politics of memory and lead to the emergence of various commemorative initiatives. On the other hand, their significance is moderated by the state of collective memory and the dominant topoi and public discourse strategies. Most often the resolutions using the so-called “constructive strategies” do not seek to radically reformulate the state of social historical consciousness. They disregard inconvenient persons and events and foster petrification of social imagination and marginalization of the minority communities of memory.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Jaskulowski ◽  
Piotr Majewski

The article discusses the connections between nationalism and history teaching in the context of dominant structures of collective memory in Poland. Drawing on qualitative research in Upper Silesian schools, the article analyses in detail how the state-sponsored history is enacted and resisted by the teachers in school practice. The article also demonstrates the advantages of processual conceptualisation of collective memory. It provides further theoretical insight by bringing together three strands of literature: memory studies, nationalism studies and critical media analysis.


Author(s):  
Ekaterina Leonidovna Timshina

Almost three decades have passed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union; however, there is still no unity towards its history – various political actors interpret it differently. Analysis is conducted on the politics of memory of the parties that participated in the last two election campaigns in reference to the Soviet period. The goal of article is to determine the parties with own politics of memory; assess the attitude of the political parties on the Soviet history as a whole and isolated key events; as well as describe experience of using the politics of memory in electoral cycle. The opposition parties – the CPRF, LDPR, Yabloko, PARNAS, and the Communists of Russia – most actively referred to the politics of memory. The center of political attention became the history of the Soviet period, to which different approaches were applied. The liberal parties criticized the USSR and advocated decommunization, while the left-wing parties notices only positive aspects in the Soviet history. The LDPR offered to separate the attitude towards the Soviet regime, and the attitude towards the state. Although the political parties have not fully fulfilled their potential as the actors of the politics of memory, the development of the own strategies of interpretation of history is traced clearly. The politics of memory may evolve into a separate vector of major party politics.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Stefanie M. Woodard

Abstract This article traces changes in Polish administrative approaches toward indigenous Upper Silesians in the 1960s and 1970s. By commissioning reports from voivodeship leaders in 1967, the Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized that native Silesians held reservations toward Poland and, moreover, that postwar “Polonization” efforts may have backfired. These officials further understood the need to act quickly against “disintegration” trends. Although administrators in Katowice and Opole noted that relatively few Silesians engaged in clearly anti-Polish activities, these leaders still believed that West German influence threatened their authority in Silesia. Increasing West German involvement in the area, particularly through care packages and tourism, seemed to support this conclusion. In response to fears of West German infiltration and the rise in emigration applications, local authorities sought to bolster a distinctly Silesian identity. Opole officials in particular argued that strengthening a regional identity, rather than a Polish one, could combat the “tendency toward disintegration” in Silesia. This policy shift underscored an even greater change in attitude toward the borderland population: instead of treating native Silesians as an innate threat to Polish sovereignty, as had been the case immediately after the war, the administration now viewed them as essential for maintaining authority in western Poland.


Author(s):  
Yuliya I. Malygina ◽  

The article considers the main stages in developing museum attitudes to the costume of the second half of the XX – beginning of the XXI century, collecting and exhibiting costume in foreign and Russian museums. There is examined the theory of Danish researcher M. R. Melchior separating the history of collecting and exhibiting costume in museums into «dress» and «fashion» museology. While the «dress» museology is largely based on the study of garments and their classification, «fashion» museology focuses on organizing events that could be considered fashionable themselves, creating spectacular exhibitions that attract the attention of the public and ensure the museum’s recognition, organizing communications around the museum. The limitations and contradictions of the theory are noted and the issue of the applicability of the theory to the national museum practice is brought up. In the view of the fluidity of terms that comprehend vestmental practices in the human sciences, there is given the analysis of the use of the term «fashion» in relation to stylistic changes in the costume of the Soviet period. There is given a view at the costume collections of the State Historical Museum and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art including the main sources of acquisition of the collections and the prospects for their further formation. In both cases, the most representative part of the collection belongs to the 1960s–1980s. And while in the State Historical Museum the costume was gathered mostly as background material for illustrating historical events the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts’ acquisition was purposefully based on the artistic quality of the items, which helped to form up the collection of the author’s costume. In the concluding part of the article there is given a view upon the exhibition practice of the State Historical Museum and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art representing the costume of the second half of the XX and early XXI centuries


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 124-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Mendoza García

A silenced and forgotten period of the Mexican past is that of the dirty war unleashed by the state against social movements in the second half of the twentieth century, especially the guerrillas and suspected guerrillas of the 1960s and 1970s. The dirty war is an unresolved issue in terms of memory, acknowledgment, and justice for those who suffered violence at the hands of those in power. An account of part of this period that reconstructs the ideologization, clandestine detention, and torture suffered by victims of this dirty war from the perspective of collective memory contributes to filling the gap in knowledge about this period. La guerra sucia desatada por el estado mexicano en contra de los movimientos sociales en la segunda mitad del siglo XX (especialmente en contra de las guerrillas y las supuestas guerrillas de los años 60 y 70) es un periodo silenciado y olvidado del pasado mexicano. Esta guerra sucia es un asunto pendiente en términos de memoria, reconocimiento y justicia para aquellos que sufrieron la violencia a manos del poder establecido. Un relato de una parte de este período que desde la perspectiva de la memoria colectiva reconstruya la ideologización, la detención clandestina y la tortura que sufrieron las víctimas de la guerra sucia servirá para llenar las lagunas en el conocimiento sobre este período.


2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.


Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 245-255
Author(s):  
Rostislav F. Turovsky

The article is devoted to the study of the party model of Russian parliamentarism in post-soviet period. The focus is on the issues of party representation and its correlation with the distribution of the managerial positions and introduction of collective legislation at State Duma. These issues are examined from the point of view of reaching cross-party consensus and implementation of fair parliament party representation principle. According to the author Russian parliamentarism model aims at reaching full-fledged party consensus that corresponds better to the principles of popular representation than strict parliament polarization along the line of “authority-opposition”. Understanding of those issues by the majority of the players was noted from the very start of the State Duma activities, in spite of the acute conflicts in the 1990-ies.The author draws the conclusion that the equation of party representation continues to grow at the level of managerial positions in the parliament that allows to improve cooperation of the parties and to reduce authority and opposition conflicts. Thereby the Russian parliamentarism model makes an important contribution to the stabilization of socio-political situation of the country.


e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Adam Mateusz Suchecki

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.


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