scholarly journals HISTORICAL MEMORY AND PATRIOTISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3/2) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
G. S. SHIROKALOVA
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The State ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government

The article investigates the reasons for rejection of patriotism during  the preparation and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among  them we distinguish the material and other possibilities of so-called  “offshore aristocracy” for the management of public opinion in order  to maintain their status through the destruction of sacred  relationship to the history and the state, which was inherent to the  Soviet mentality. The loss of spiritual base could lead to the  destruction of the Russian Federation according to the scenario of  the Soviet Union, that’s why the government - unable to find a new  national idea – had to appeal to the people’s exploit during the Great Patriotic War as a manifestation of the highest level of patriotism.  Since the beginning of the 2000`s, patriotic education becomes the  direction of public policy. Its effectiveness can be measured through  the empirically observable indicators of attitude to historical events  and modernity. The author believes that the historical memory is a  necessary, but insufficient condition for the patriotism formation. Patriotism of everyday life is the feature that brings social  stability to the state. The article presents the data of  sociological research of the youth’s attitudes to the Great Patriotic  War, which was conducted in Nizhniy Novgorod in 2015. The author  comes to the conclusion that as a result of wide-ranging preparation  to 70th anniversary of the Victory, the historical memory was  actualized. However, the question remains how long it will be  possible to maintain the historical identity in the face of increasing social and economic crisis.

scholarly journals Activities of Non-Governmental Organisations Aimed at Conflict Settlement in Post-Soviet States

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Nikitin ◽  
Irina Bolgova ◽  
Yulia Nikitina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
International Environment ◽  
International Projects ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Organisations ◽  
Set Up

This article analyses the peace-making activities of Soviet/Russian nongovernmental public organisations (NGOs) with reference to the Federation for Peace and Conciliation, the successor of the Soviet Peace Committee. NGOs were formed at the initiative of the state and party organs of the Soviet system but were transformed into independent NGOs after the collapse of the USSR with their own active strategy of assistance in conflict resolution. This study is based upon unique archive materials and the personal experience of one of the authors, who used to work for such organisations. The study focuses on the ethnopolitical conflicts which took place between the collapse of the USSR and the mid‑1990s. There is a widespread opinion in academic literature that so-called non-governmental organisations set up by the government do not have their own identity, especially during social crises, and passively follow the government’s political line. However, the study of their activities demonstrates that during the first years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these organisations initiated a significant number of practical and political projects with the participation of high-ranked representatives of the governments, parliaments, and political parties of both post-Soviet and foreign states and international organisations, including the UN, OSCE, NATO, CIS, etc. This, in turn, played a role as a substantial supplement to classical interstate diplomacy and practically promoted the settlement of certain ethnopolitical conflicts. The archive materials analysed prove that in the early post-Soviet period, a certain inversion in the direction of political and ideological impulses took place, and a number of non-governmental organisations that used to transmit the interests of the Communist Party and state organs to the international environment were able to create new international projects and consultations in the form of “track one-and-a-half” diplomacy, i. e. the informal interaction of officials in the capacity of unofficial experts. And in such cases, it was NGOs which shaped the agenda and transmitted public interests to the state structures of Russia and the CIS states, mediating between fighting sides and amongst representatives of various states, practically assisting the settlement of ethnopolitical conflicts.

scholarly journals From DP Camps to the “Green Continent”

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Antoshin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Displaced Persons ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New Information ◽  
National Archives ◽  
National University ◽  
National Archives Of Australia ◽  
The Government

This review focuses on a monograph written by Jayne Persian, lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland (Australia). The work is the first complex study devoted to the adaptation of former “displaced persons” (more particularly, émigrés from the Soviet Union) in Australia between the 1940s and 1960s. The work refers to an extensive complex of documents from the National Archives of Australia, the National Archives (United Kingdom), the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Australian National University, and interviews with former “displaced persons” residing in Australia. The study is very important because it provides new information on the second wave of Soviet emigration, which is seldom examined by contemporary Russian scholars. Persian demonstrates that political factors played an important role in how the Australian government granted immigration permission. Quite frequently, Australia preferred people who shared anti-communist positions. Therefore, many former collaborators of the World War II era came to Australia; this hindered cooperation between the USSR and Australia. Persian shows that “new Australians” had difficulty integrating into society. The government tried to assimilate them, which pushed the immigrants to seek isolation in their communities. This book helps us understand the controversial character of the state policy of historical memory, a problem that is also very important for contemporary Russia.

The State’s Pot and the Soldier’s Spoon

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-104
Author(s):  
Brandon M. Schechter
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Vertical Relationship ◽  
The Government

This chapter focuses on provisioning in the Red Army, tracing how soldiers ate, the ways the government positioned itself as provider, and the logic of who deserved more or less food under conditions of extreme shortage. In the first years of the war, the Soviet Union lost its bread basket, making hunger inevitable. Under these conditions, the government's dedication to provide was reaffirmed to soldiers, who were promised ample provisions in return for their service. Ultimately, it was difficult to imagine such a key resource as food outside of the horizontal bonds between citizens and the vertical relationship to the state. The very term used for rations, paëk, implied mutual obligations. Paëk could be seen as the physical embodiment of the socialist adage “to each according to his work,” as its etymological root implied an earned share in a common cause. The chapter then considers how rations were assembled by the government and later received and used by soldiers at the front—how paëk functioned, was experienced, and occasionally transformed by soldiers.

scholarly journals Situation of Tatars and other Muslim minorities in communist Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Eldar Kh. Seidametov ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
The State ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
The Way

The article examines the situation of the Tatars and other Muslim minorities in Bulgaria during the communist period. The policy of the state in relation to Muslim minorities after the proclamation of the People`s Republic of Bulgaria and the establishment of socialism in the state according to the Soviet model, when the political, economic and social models of the USSR were imported and introduced without taking into account the national characteristics of Bulgaria, are analyzed. As in the Soviet Union (especially in the early stage of its formation, religion was banned and this applied to all confessions without exception. The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) made every effort eradicate religious identity and, in particular, Islamic identity. It was planned to replace the religious ideological fragment with a socialist one, and then, on its platform, form and stimulate the development of the national, modernist and Soviet identity of Muslims. Moreover, the emphasis was also placed on improving the way of life and the material situation of the Muslim population, which, according to the Marxist theory of culture, should have contributed to a more effective formation of socialist consciousness. The ruling party saw in the Muslim religious consciousness and rudiments of the Ottoman past, an obstacle on the way of socialist progress and formation of socialist consciousness. Emasculating elements of the religious worldview from the mind of people, the BCP set itself the task of creating a modern, secular, socialist personality. To this end, in 1946–1989 the government implemented a number of economic, educational and cultural establishments.

scholarly journals PATRIOTIC EDUCATION OF S.AMANZOLOV OV DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
А.А. Oskembay ◽  
◽  
F.K. Kabdrakhmanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
The Military

The article provides an assessment of the patriotic education of S. Amanzholov's soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. A comprehensive analysis of S. Amanzholov's activities as a political leader is presented. The article provides new data on the use of heroic deeds of Kazakh batyrs by scientists to raise the military spirit of soldiers. During the Great Patriotic War, patriotism became the most important value in Soviet society. Selfless devotion to their Motherland manifested itself among millions of Soviet citizens and became a source of unprecedented mass heroism. From February 1942 to June 1946 S. Amanzholov was on active military service in the ranks of the Soviet Army. He conducted political and educational work among soldiers of non-Russian nationality, published in the Kazakh language the "Notebook of the Red Army Agitator" and leaflets about the heroes of the Soviet Union.

scholarly journals “Myths Making”: Western View of Soviet/Russian Historical Memory (Book Review: Davis, V. Myth Making in the Soviet Union and Modern Russia: Remembering World War Two in Brezhnev’s Hero City [Text] / V. Davis. – London : I.B. Taurus, 2018. – 351 p.)

2020 ◽  
pp. 120-125
Author(s):  
Aleksey Popov ◽  
Oleg Romanko
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Western View

Introduction. The publication is a review of the monograph of British researcher V. Davis, dedicated to the Soviet and Post-Soviet memory of the Great Patriotic War in the hero city of Novorossiysk. Methods and materials. Based on a significant set of published materials and oral interviews, the author characterizes discourse, memorials, and practices related to the genesis and subsequent development of the “myth about Malaya Zemlya”. From the methodological point of view, the peer-reviewed monograph is written from the position of the popular direction of memory studies in the West and is characterized by interdisciplinarity, increased attention to the analysis of memorial discourse, visual representations and social practices, while completely ignoring the complex of archival sources on the research topic. Analysis and Results. The main conclusion of the author is that through its association with L.I. Brezhnev’s biography during his reign, the “malozemelniy myth” became an important part of not only local but also national historical memory. Generally, the reviewed book is a valuable contribution to the study of the collective memory of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet and Post-Soviet period, and the debatable nature of its individual provisions can serve as an incentive for the emergence of new studies. The main disadvantage of the book in terms of its scientific significance is the author’s desire to impose on the reader non-obvious political conclusions about the total mythology of the Soviet/Post-Soviet memory of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the permanent militarism of public consciousness in the USSR/Russia.

The War in the Historical Memory of Nations

2015 ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
N. V. Pavlov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Important Work ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Gene Level ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Second World

There is no doubt that the most important event of the 20th century was a joint victory of the united front of peoples and states over German fascism. For some that was the victory in the Second World War. For the Russians - the victory in the Great Patriotic War which cost the Soviet Union incredible efforts, enormous sacrifices and material losses. Now when we celebrate the 70thyear since that epoch-making date we turn our attention once more to the lessons of history because the memory of the war has been imprinted deeply on our gene level of Russians and Germans. This is because every family from both sides sustained heavy losses. This memory is alive in literature, in movies and plays, songs, in memorials, biographies and historical dates. The Russian and German descendants of those who fought against each other are doing an important work searching for the killed, looking after the burial places, compensating the damage to the victims of this inhuman massacre, trying to understand critically our common and controversial past. What was the 9th of May for the Germans and the Russians in the perception of Germans and Russians? Was it a victory, a defeat or liberation? This is what the author of the article reflects on, convinced that we are anyway dealing with the greatest event of the 20th century, at least because it prevented the end of civilization.

Factors of the Soviet Union Victory in the Great Patriotic War: the newest evaluations of Russian historiography

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
В.А. Невежин ◽  
Е.С. Сапрыкина
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Party Government ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
The Government

В статье анализируются публикации российских историков о факторах победы СССР в Великой Отечественной войне. В качестве источников использовались статьи и монографии, вышедшие в свет в 2015–2020 гг. Основным фактором этой победы признаны в исследовательской литературе наличие промышленного потенциала, героизм и самоотверженность бойцов и командиров Красной армии, патриотический настрой населения, который сочетался с верой в руководство, терпением и умением преодолевать трудности и лишения, которые были вызваны войной. Немаловажное значение имел фактор власти — личность И.В. Сталина, который олицетворял собой в 1941−1945 гг. партийное, государственное и военное руководство. Большое значение имели межсоюзнические отношения СССР в рамках антигитлеровской коалиции, в первую очередь — с Великобританией и США, которые оказали ему помощь по ленд-лизу. The article analyzes the factors of the USSR victory in the Great Patriotic War brought up by Russian historians. Used are the articles and monographics згидшырув шт2015—2020. The main factors of the victory recognized within research literature are: the industrial capacity, Red Army soldiers and commanders’ heroism and dedication, patriotic values of the population in connection with the great belief in the government, the patience and ability to overcome difficulties and undergo hardships, caused by the war. Important also was the factor of authority — the personality of I.V. Stalin, who embodied during 1941—1945 party, government and military leadership. Of great importance was the anti-Hitler coalition, initiated by declarations of mutual support from the governments of the USSR, the USA, and Britain.

The Socialist Construction of Philately in the Early Soviet Era

1995 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Grant
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Actual Condition ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Total Control ◽  
The Government

The term totalitarian has often been used by scholars to characterize the Soviet Union's system of government, and in many studies the emphasis has fallen on assessing the degree of effectiveness of the ruling apparatus in exercising its total control over society. Whatever the actual condition of public life in the Soviet Union (USSR), a desire to use the totalitarian system undeniably existed; and regardless of the degree to which people were able to retain an autonomous private sphere, their lives were shaped by this urge to total control. The best examples of this come not from the realm of high politics but of mundane personal practices such as the pursuit of hobbies. During the period from 1921 to 1939, the Soviet government redefined the hobby of stamp collecting, socially reconstructing it in terms of the regime's values. In the process, the Soviet regime demonstrated its totalitarian goal in ways that had ramifications in everyday life, as can be seen in the state's relations with the philatelists and in the realm of hobbies. The fact that the government strictly controlled and circumscribed something as seemingly innocuous and insignificant as stamp collecting reveals how strongly the state aspired to have total control of society. More important, this urge sprang not from the top of the Soviet apparatus but, rather, from mid-level officials.

scholarly journals Contra Spem Spero: The Third Sector’s Resilience in the Face of Political Turbulence and Legislative Change in Ukraine

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svitlana Krasynska
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Shadow Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
Ukrainian Society ◽  
People Today

AbstractThe iconic Ukrainian poem, “Contra Spem Spero,” with its theme of resilience in the face of enduring hardships, appears as salient for the Ukrainian people today as when it was composed more than a hundred years ago. Political instability and a far from favorable legislative system have affected Ukraine’s society in a variety of ways since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. How have Ukraine’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) been shaped by these conditions? A review of academic and applied literature, as well as governmental reports and legislative texts, reveals that the political and legislative environment in Ukraine is highly unstable and, at times, antagonistic to NGOs. However, indicators of sector activity and interviews with Ukrainian nonprofits suggest that the sector, overall, has not changed significantly during the last decade of substantial political and legislative changes. This paper suggests that Ukrainian nonprofits (much like Ukrainian society in general) appear to exist in a parallel universe with the governmental and legislative world. Ukrainian nonprofits are generally not supported by and are largely independent from the government. The concept of a shadow economy in Ukraine is discussed as a way of understanding how nonprofit organizations continue to function in what is often an adverse policy environment. “Contra Spem Spero” (1890), translated from Latin as “Against all Hope I Hope,” is the title of a poem by one of Ukraine’s most revered poets, Lesya Ukraїnka.

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