‘Obligatory and Preliminary Review of All Broadcasts Plans and Scripts.’ Running Commentary and Broadcasts on Celebratory Demonstration as a Means of Shaping Soviet Values in 1920s-1930s

2018 ◽  
pp. 406-422
Author(s):  
Elena V. Barysheva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Preliminary Review ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
Political Consolidation ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Accessible Form

This article studies radio broadcasts of celebratory demonstrations of workers in 1920-30s as a form of ideological influence on the public consciousness. Audio-culture, as a most wide-reaching and accessible form of mass media, had a significant impact on the audience from 1918 to 1920-30s. Radio played an important role in the solution of ideological tasks, rendering figurative and verbal influence on the masses in the Soviet Union. Explaining and spreading the changes that took place in the life and the politics of the nation, the radio created a unified space of communication. Running commentary as a communication had its rules and limitations, which had developed in the first decades of the Soviet power. Discourse stereotypes had in due course resulted in emergence of a ritualistic form of reporting similar to demonstrations and parades themselves. The genre developing, many clich?s and hackneyed phrase appeared that were to impress propaganda slogans and appeals on the listeners and to inspire emotions. Now these slogans were accessible to everyone, as reproducers were installed in the streets of cities and villages and pervaded communal flats. Event reporting intensified the emotional state of the audience, giving an impression of true popular enthusiasm. In radio reports from official festive events, message of the power inducing socio-political consolidation of the society was obvious. The research analyzes drafts of a radio program script on festive demonstration of November 7, 1939 stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Yu. K. Olesha fond). The writer’s notes indicate that the preliminary censorship and self-censorship did not allow for improvisation.

The Challenges to Social Control in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, 1964-1982

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Fedor L. Sinitsyn
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Secretary

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.

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

scholarly journals Aviation in the development and defense of the Arctic during the 1920s: military plans, science, propaganda, and fiction

2021 ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Andrei Aleksandrovich Mikhailov ◽  
Anastasiya Aleksandrovna Fisheva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Special Contribution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Press ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Northern Territories ◽  
The Military

This article examines the competition for the Arctic territories between the polar regions that unfolded in the 1920s, which required active development of these lands involving airplanes and airships. At that point, of primary import was the layout of trans-Arctic airways and deployment of flight support facilities in the Arctic territories, with the accompanying use of aviation for ice reconnaissance and rescue expeditions. Special attention is given to the study of the Soviet and international experience in elaboration and implementation of programs on the military and economic development of northern territories. The topic of consistent development of the Arctic involving aviation and aerostatics is reflected not only in scientific and economic programs, but also in state propaganda, publicistic writing and literary works. The novelty of this research consists in the comprehensive approach towards the problems of involving aviation in the Soviet Union during the 1920s for the development of the Arctic, and simultaneously, building the military capacity of the state, and collective perception of the ideas of the development of Arctic territories and aviation. The conclusion is made that the processes of development of polar aviation and division of Arctic territories were the so-called catalyst for each other, which by the early 1930s allowed the Soviet Union to consolidate its position of in the Arctic. The authors’ special contribution lies in examination of various genres of the press as a particular group of sources that had an ideological influence upon public consciousness.

scholarly journals The All-Buryat Congress for the Spiritual Rebirth and Consolidation of the Nation: Siberian politics in the final year of the USSR

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-71
Author(s):  
Melissa Chakars
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
General Goals

This article examines the All-Buryat Congress for the Spiritual Rebirth and Consolidation of the Nation that was held in the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1991. The congress met to discuss the future of the Buryats, a Mongolian people who live in southeastern Siberia, and to decide on what actions should be taken for the revival, development, and maintenance of their culture. Widespread elections were carried out in the Buryat lands in advance of the congress and voters selected 592 delegates. Delegates also came from other parts of the Soviet Union, as well as from Mongolia and China. Government administrators, Communist Party officials, members of new political parties like the Buryat-Mongolian People’s Party, and non-affiliated individuals shared their ideas and political agendas. Although the congress came to some agreement on the general goals of promoting Buryat traditions, language, religions, and culture, there were disagreements about several of the political and territorial questions. For example, although some delegates hoped for the creation of a larger Buryat territory that would encompass all of Siberia’s Buryats within a future Russian state, others disagreed revealing the tension between the desire to promote ethnic identity and the practical need to consider economic and political issues.

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.

Soviet Selves

2019 ◽  
pp. 60-81
Author(s):  
Justine Buck Quijada
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Religious Actors

Chapter 2 presents the Soviet chronotope embodied in Victory Day celebrations. Victory Day, which is the celebration of the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II, presumes the familiar Soviet genre of history, in which the Soviet Union brought civilization to Buryatia, and Buryats achieved full citizenship in the Soviet utopian dream through their collective sacrifice during the war. The ritual does not narrate Soviet history. Instead, through Soviet and wartime imagery, and the parade form, the public holiday evokes this genre in symbolic form, enabling local residents to read their own narratives of the past into the imagery. This space for interpretation enables both validation as well as critique of the Soviet experience in Buryatia. Although not everyone in Buryatia agrees on how to evaluate this history, this genre is the taken-for-granted backdrop against which other religious actors define their narratives.

The Russian Economy: Putin's Pause

2001 ◽  
Vol 100 (648) ◽  
pp. 336-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Millar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union

Putin appears to have more in common with Brezhnev than with his more decisive predecessors. Khrushchev, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin risked their positions in attempts to de-Stalinize the Soviet Union. … Putin's rule seems to be more pause than reform, which is, incidentally, what the public wants.

Sino-Soviet Relations, 1964–1965

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 3-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Point Of No Return

The radical worsening of Sino-Soviet relations began in the spring of 1958 and the “ point of no return ” occurred at the latest in the summer of 1959. Indeed, since 1958 the public dispute has followed a cyclical course of escalation and partial détente. Each cycle has made Moscow-Peking relations worse than before and given other communist parties more autonomy from the Soviet Union. The apparent partial détentes have ostensibly been caused by Soviet and Chinese moves toward reconciliation, but these actually have been tactical maneuvers intended by each primarily to worsen the other's position and to gain support within other communist parties.

Muslims in Russia and the Successor States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Russia ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Muslim Communities

The history of Muslim populations in Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union is long and varied. In a Pew–Templeton poll conducted in Russia in 2010, 10 percent of respondents stated that their religion was Islam, while Muslims also make up a majority of the population in six post-Soviet republics: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Muslims have long lived in regions across Russia, with far-flung communities ranging from distant outposts of Siberia to western cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were more Muslims in the Russian Empire than there were in Iran or the Ottoman Empire, the two largest independent Muslim-majority states in the world at the time. Historically, the Muslim communities of Russia have been concentrated in four main regions: the Volga–Ural region in central Russia, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. While Muslim communities across former Soviet space share both differences and similarities with one another with regard to language and religious practices, their respective relations with the various Russian states that have existed over the years have varied. Moreover, Russian and Soviet policymaking toward all of these communities has shifted considerably from one era, and one ruler, to another. Throughout the imperial and Soviet eras, and extending into the post-Soviet era up to the present day, therefore, the existence of variations with regard to both era and region remains one of the most enduring legacies of Muslim–state interactions. Muslims in Russia vary by traditions, language, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and practices, and with respect to their historical interactions with the Russian state. The four historically Muslim-inhabited regions were incorporated into the Russian state at different points during its imperial history, often under quite sharply contrasting sets of conditions. Today most, but not all, Muslims in Russia and the rest of the former USSR are Sunni, although the manner and degree to which religion is practiced varies greatly among both communities and individuals. With respect to language, Muslim communities in Russia have traditionally been dominated demographically by Turkic speakers, although it should be noted that most Turkic languages are not mutually comprehensible in spoken form. In the North Caucasus and Tajikistan, the most widely spoken indigenous languages are not Turkic, although in these areas there are Turkic-speaking minorities. Another important feature of Muslim–state interactions in Russia is their connection to Muslims and Muslim-majority states beyond Russia’s borders. Throughout the imperial era, Russia’s foreign policymaking vis-à-vis the Ottoman Empire and Iran was often intimately connected to domestic policymaking toward Muslim communities inside Russia. While this was a less pronounced feature of Moscow’s foreign policymaking during the Soviet era, in the post-Soviet era, policymaking toward Muslims domestically has once again become more closely linked to Russia’s foreign policy goals.

scholarly journals The Police System Reform in Georgia (Informal Power its Forms, Types and Spheres of Influence)

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Charkviani
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
The State ◽  
System Reform ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Legitimate Power ◽  
Police System

Abstract It is a widely accepted notion that the major change brought by the 2003 November revolution in Georgia was the reform of the public services. Two major tasks were to be achieved for the state institutions: to monopolize the use of legitimate power on the state territory and to start providing services to the citizens. Police reform was at the heart of both these objectives. The major obstacle identified on the way of this reform was corruption. Indeed it was widely known that posts in police forces were to be purchased; policemen were involved in organized crime, extortion, and other illegal pursuits. But the corruption itself was the effect of the broader system in which patrimonial system of not distinguishing between the public office and private sphere was hybridized with the legal-rational rule, having its origin in the Soviet Union. The main subject of our research is to analyze the model of informal power network in Georgian police, to describe its configurations and identify its social actors. For the theoretical approach in our study we will use different theories describing informal institutes and the reasons of their existence. One of the main theoretical sources for our analysis will be the theoretical concept of Helmke and Levitsky. Helmke and Levitsky are describing four types of informal institutions which we plan to apply to Georgian police system and identify which of them is more relevant for Georgian reality. Also we will refer to such theories as: Mark Granoveter's strength of week ties and social “embeddedness” of economic action; Mars and Altman's Cultural Basis of Soviet Georgia; Ledeneva's theory of “Blat”, which is one of most popular analytical theory about informal relations in post-Soviet countries. The main methods we have used are in-depth and narrative interviews. The interviews have been conducted with policemen currently working in different police departments, policemen no more working in this structure, expert and NGO representatives.

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