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.

Reliability of the Plot Related to the Conversation with Deng Xiaoping on the Sino-Soviet Territorial Issues in the Memoirs of E. Shevardnadze

2021 ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Yinan Li
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Deng Xiaoping ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
History Of ◽  
Territorial Claims

In 2009, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and President of Georgia E.A. Shevardnadze published his memoirs in Russian, which contain an “explosive” plot: while visiting China in February 1989, during his meeting with Deng Xiaoping, a lengthy dispute over border and territorial issues occurred. At that time, Deng allegedly expressed his point of view that vast lands of the Soviet Union, from three to four million square kilometers, belonged to China. Chinese can wait patiently until someday the lands return to China. This content is cited in scientific works by many historians from different countries as an argument. However, there is no other evidence which can prove this recollection. Many details in it contradict the well known historical facts or are completely illogical. There is a good reason to believe that the plot in the memoirs of Shevardnadze is an incorrect recollection. It could even be considered as a made-up story. Moreover, it is possible that it was fabricated for some reasons. Hence, the plot is not worthy of being quoted as a reliable source. At the Sino-Soviet summit Deng Xiaoping did have expressed the point of view that in the past Russia and then the Soviet Union cut off millions of square kilometers of land from China, but at the same time he promised the leader of the Soviet Union that China would not make territorial claims. Since the mid-1980s Deng Xiaoping actively promoted the settlement of the Sino-Soviet border issues through negotiations, which led to the result that 99% of the border between Russia and China was delimited on a legal basis in the last years of his life. At present, the problems of the Sino-Russian border have been finally resolved long ago. There is no doubt that the scientific research and discussions on issues related to territory and borders in the history of Sino-Soviet relations can be made. However, such research and discussions should be based on reliable sources.

scholarly journals Localization of Marxism in China: History, Theory and the Challenge

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Peng Li
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Governing Principle ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of Value

Marxism is the science of universal standard. The truth, practicality, scientific of Marxism has been proved by history. But with the development of practice, the development of Marxist theory itself is facing a new opportunity, also faced with unprecedented challenges. How to effectively cope with the challenges？Such as: Is communism a utopia? The labor theory of value is effective? Socialist country is democracy? And so on. All these problems are the socialist system and Marxist must think and answer. As a Marxist, how to truly stand in the position of Marxism, using the Marxist method and point of view to observe the social and economic development and the progress of human civilization and world history, is the problem of contemporary Marxists has to think about. Or it will lose vitality, and will be out of date, and possible failure. The most familiar example is the socialist power caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences. As important heritage and development of Marxist theory, the Communist Party of China has always been guided by the Marxism theory, whether in revolution, construction and reform, or the governing principle politics today. Can say, not only accumulated a very valuable historical experience, but also enriched and developed Marxism, the Communist Party of China have a say in the history of Marxist development. So, we need to discuss three questions, the effectiveness of the Marxist theory, and understanding of Marxist trajectory of the Communist Party of China, the challenge for the Marxism theory and how to deal with.

scholarly journals Economic History in the Topics of Dissertation Research in Russia (1991–2019)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
Sergey A. Bakanov ◽  
Ivan A. Medvedev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Library

Introduction. This article deals with the subject of thesis in the direction of “Economic history”, which were prepared and defended in Russia in the post-Soviet period (1991–2019). The dissolution of the Soviet Union is getting rid of research from ideological clichés, which made the topic of economic history relevant and in demand. Materials and Methods. On the basis of the e-catalog of authors’ abstracts of the Russian State Library, the database “Dissertations on economic history of the late XX – early XXI centuries” was formed. The bibliographic information about the authors’ abstracts became the formal attributes of the described database. The analytical units were the attributes of the “geographical range”, “chronological frame” and “research problem”. Results. The analysis of the database showed that during the entire period were formed stable trends scientific subdirectories within the frame of economic history (history of industry, history of agriculture, history of entrepreneurship, history of banks, etc.), and in maintaining the status of leading research centers. The historical period from the second half of the XIX to the first half of the XX centuries attracts the main attention of the authors of thesis on economic history. Discussion and Conclusion. A quantitative analysis of the dynamic of thesis defenses showed a decline in the interest of authors of thesis in the problems of economic history in the 2010s. The key factors of this decline were changes in the requirements to thesis. Nevertheless, the authors believe that the direction of “economic history” has a potential to overcome designated problems.

scholarly journals The Journey Begins: Letter from Vasily Struve to Mikhail Rostovtzev of 25 May 1914

2020 ◽  
pp. 1119-1130
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Ladynin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Near East ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Archives ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of

The article presents a publication of the letter from Vasily Vasilievich Struve (1889–1965), pioneer in the research of the Ancient Near East societies in the Soviet Union, to Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzev (1870–1952), the prominent Classicist, one of the first scholars in socio-economic history of the Antiquity in pre-revolutionary Russia. The letter was written during Struve’s post-graduate sabbatical in Berlin in 1914; it is stored in the Russian State Historical Archives in St. Petersburg. The document is significant due to its information on Struve’s stay in Berlin and on his contacts with leading German scholars (including Eduard Meyer and Adolf Erman), but it also touches upon a bigger issue. In the early 1930s Struve forwarded his concept of slave-owning mode of production in the Ancient Near East, which was immediately accepted into official historiography, making him a leading theoretician in the Soviet research of ancient history. It has been repeatedly stated in memoirs and in post-Soviet historiography that this concept and, generally speaking, Struve’s interest in socio-economic issues was opportunistic. His 1910s articles on the Ptolemaic society and state published prior to the Russian revolution weigh heavily against this point of view. The published letter contains Struve’s assessment of his future thesis (state institutions of the New Kingdom of Egypt) and puts its topic in the context of current discussions on the Ptolemaic state and society and of his studies in the Rostovtzev’s seminar at the St. Petersburg University. Struve declares the study of Egyptian social structure and connections between its pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic phases his life-task, introduced to him by Rostovtzev. Thus, Struve’s early interest in these issues appears to be sincere; it stems from pre-revolutionary trends in the Russian scholarship.

THE HISTORY OF STATE BUILDING IN THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
Mikhail Mints ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political History ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
State Building ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of

This review article deals with a collection of essays published in «Europe-Asia Studies», vol. 71, N 6 (2019), the authors of which are analyzing Stalinism as a specific exemplar of state-building. Their research is based on various concepts of modern social sciences, especially on the theory of the developmental state. The authors show the new opportunities provided by such an approach and suggest the main directions of further study of the political history of the USSR from this point of view.

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.

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 The 1957 Domestic Loan and the Completion of the Era of “Voluntary-Obligatory Loans” (Middle Ural)

2020 ◽  
pp. 435-449
Author(s):  
V. N. Mamyachenkov ◽  
E. A. Ivanov ◽  
V. V. Shvedov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of

The purpose of this article is to investigate events related to a significant fact in the economic history of the USSR - the actual refusal by the state of its obligations on previously placed domestic loans in 1957. The relevance of the study is due to the interest shown in researching the experience of overcoming the financial crisis. The scientific novelty of the study is seen in the fact that archival materials not previously published are introduced into the scientific circulation. It is stated that from the point of view of the modern economy, government borrowing is an indispensable and mandatory attribute of public finances. It is stated that the reason for the need for such borrowing lies in the property of a loan to reduce the time of realization of personal and social needs. It focuses on the fact that the culmination and final moment of the era of permanent state internal borrowing was the factual default of the state declared in the spring of 1957. A review of the statements of citizens characterizing their attitude to this event is carried out. It is proved that the default did not have a significant impact on the state of the family budgets of citizens of the country. It is concluded that in the history of the Soviet Union the mentioned event will remain an event of the passive-palliative type.

Complicated History

2011 ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
T. Nosenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Major Event ◽  
World Community ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The article deals with preconditions and implications of a major event in the history of international relations of our country, namely – the restoration of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Israel. This development, which took place in 1989, on the eve of the demise of the Soviet Union, must be viewed as a result of the general review of the whole system of interstate relationships that had dominated Moscow’s foreign policy for decades. It was part of a major change destined to restructure Russia’s role in the world community.

scholarly journals Guido Piovene. Articoli dall’Unione Sovietica (1960)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pia Arpioni ◽  
Alberto Zava
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Western World ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Administrative System ◽  
The Third ◽  
Travel Experience ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1960S

In the twenty-nine articles that constitute the result of the 1960s travel experience in the Soviet Union, which have so far appeared only on the third page of La Stampa, the cultural-literary operation of Guido Piovene is outlined, perfectly reflecting the programmatic intention to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into Soviet society in the early 1960s, providing a useful comparison with the condition of the western world and overcoming the appearance and conventionality of preconceived ideas (by the visitor) and prepackaged information (from part of the Soviet administrative system). In his reportage Piovene is able to activate the dynamic functions that constitute the main lines of his literary writing: the inclusion of the landscape in the narrative context and the deep internal investigation conducted on the characters, in a balance between inside and outside, between observation and analysis, between reality and dream. The result is a corpus of articles that constitute an important cultural document of that historical period but at the same time another great literary reportage by one of the most refined journalist-writers of the Italian twentieth century.

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