scholarly journals The Phenomenon of Late Soviet Mysticism

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-129
Author(s):  
Aleksey I. Ivanenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Traumatic Experience ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Fifth Dimension ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Light Side ◽  
Mystical Literature

This article studies the phenomenon of mysticism in Soviet culture of the 1960s – 1980s. The starting point are the elements of mystical discourse in late Soviet cinematography, which captured both Soviet life and the Afghan War. This is surprising since official Soviet ideology strongly rejected mysticism. The very definition of mysticism in Soviet dictionaries was not entirely correct, since it gravitated towards theistic mysticism, focused on experiencing mystical unity with the Absolute. Meanwhile, starting from 1965, the Soviet Union saw a “mystical renaissance” due to the popularization of mystical literature (W. Messing, M. Bulgakov, D. Andreyev). Special mention must be made of A. Martynov, who outlined the paranormal phenomena of the Soviet period. One of the factors of this “mystical renaissance” was the traumatic experience of World War II, which was channelled into the Great Victory cult. This quasireligious practice included the meditative moment of silence, the eternal flame and monuments to the Motherland. Among other factors can be named a certain acceptance of religion as a form of culture and the New Age movement that came from the West. To a large extent, the revival of mysticism in the Soviet Union was facilitated by the crisis of science: the paradoxes of the vacuum theory and synergetics with its idea of generating order out of chaos. The main form of expression of late Soviet mysticism was the idea of a parallel world as a source of “paranormal phenomena”: for Messing and Martynov it is a mystical field, for Bulgakov, the fifth dimension, while for Andreyev, Shadanakar. In the Soviet Union, mass hypnosis associated with telepathy, as well as telekinesis, teleportation, levitation, and poltergeist were regarded as mystical phenomena. In addition, this article analyses the correlation between the notions of mysticism, spirituality and occultism. Their meanings overlap to a certain degree, since all three imply the existence of another world and the possibility of communicating with it. However, spirituality, which is actively used in world religions, belongs to the light side, while occultism is thought of as the dark side of mystical phenomena.

scholarly journals Kreml ja Kreenholm, Talvepalee ja Toompea. Linnad stalinismiaja eesti luules / The Kremlin and Kreenholm, the Winter Palace and Toompea hill: Cities in Estonian Poetry of the Stalinist Era

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mart Velsker
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The City

Artikkel käsitleb linnade kujutamist Nõukogude Eesti luules aastatel 1940–1955, analüüsimiseks on võetud sel ajal ilmunud luuleraamatud. Eestis kuulutati siis üldkehtivaks kirjanduslikuks meetodiks sotsialistlik realism. Esteetilised printsiibid kujunesid siiski kirjandusliku praktika käigus, sageli kirjutati luuletusi Moskvast ja Leningradist ning nende eeskujul õpiti kujutama ka kohalikke Eesti linnu eesotsas Tallinnaga. Linnaruum – nagu teisedki stalinistliku kultuuri komponendid – oli politiseeritud, mis tähendas esimeses järjekorras sakraliseeritud ruumimudeli ülekannet tekstidesse.   The article aims to give a survey of cities and urban spaces appearing in Soviet Estonian poetry of the Stalinist period. All in all, 93 Estonian-language collections of poetry were published in Soviet Estonia between 1940 and 1955, but not all of these contained urban topics.  Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and this brought about an abrupt change in literary texts produced in the country because literature had to take into account the regulations imposed by the doctrine of Socialist Realism and the personality cult of Joseph Stalin. In connection with this, representations of urban space became ideologised in a novel manner. It is difficult to tease forth explicit aesthetic prescriptions from the doctrine of Socialist Realism, but a unified aesthetics was developed in the course of literary practice by authors who copied one another in order not to err unwittingly. The political surveillance of literature increased at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s; it is in this period that the most pronounced standardisation of modes of representation can be observed. Several cities are mentioned in Estonian poetry of the Stalinist era, but implicit rules governing the depiction of urban space become most readily evident in case of five cities. Among these were the largest cities in Russia (Moscow and Leningrad, today’s St. Petersburg) and in Estonia (Tallinn, Tartu and Narva). Depictions of Moscow and Tallinn are the most numerous. Representing Moscow is subject to rules in a particularly noticeable way: the capital of the Soviet Union had to contain the overarching spirit of Stalin and Lenin, and the city was represented as the static central point of a superpower or even of the whole world. In the city space of Moscow, Red Square with Lenin’s mausoleum and the Kremlin emerges as a sacralised space. In comparison with Moscow, the image of Leningrad is somewhat more dynamic for the city is often evoked as the starting point of the 1917 revolution, and Leningrad also appears as a city important in connection with World War II. Representing Tallinn proceeded from the understanding that the capital of the Estonian SSR had to be an unmediated reflection of the power emanating from Moscow. The representations of Tallinn are more varied, though, for the authors more often tended to have a personal relationship with the city. The most important landmark emerging in representations of Tallinn is the medieval tower of Tall Hermann on Toompea hill that serves as the most important flag tower in Estonia. Even in Stalin-era poetry Tallinn was often perceived as ‘ancient’, (the epithet ‘old’ is repreated in many poems), which is partly paradoxical as the pathos of Socialist Realism would prefer to speak of the birth of new cities. The paradox was resolved by introducing a dialectics of ‘old’ and ‘young’ cities; solutions were also offered in the so-called poetry of reconstruction that encouraged the removal of wartime ruins and the erection of new buldings. As concerns other Estonian cities, some poems focus on Narva as a significant industrial town. Tartu had been important in the earlier national history, but its significance waned now that Tallinn’s was rising. Tartu’s reputation as a university town survived into the Soviet period, however, and even the poetry of the Stalinist era contains some depictions of academic life. The urban centres of both Tartu and Narva suffered major damage in World War II, but the ruins receive only scant mention in verse. Still, they are not hidden and war is a recurring topic in the case of both cities. Depiction of large cities, huge spatial elements and city centres suited the poetry of Stalin’s era. Small towns seemed meaningless in this context and outskirts only obtained a meaning in case events of the past were described – thus, slums, represented as the living quarters of workers close to the city limits, would harbour a revolutionary spirit. In the case of contemporary Soviet cities, the outskirts played no particular role, as all the politically favoured meanings were located in the centre. A couple of publicatons specifically underscored the significance of cities, e.g the thematic anthology The Heart of the Homeland: Poetry Dedicated to Moscow by Estonian Authors (1947) and two books dedicated to Tallinn, Debora Vaarandi’s The Old Man from Lake Ülemiste and the Young City Builder (1952) and Paul Rummo’s A Letter from Tallinn (1955). The era’s most significant urban poets include Johannes Barbarus, Debora Vaarandi, Paul Rummo, Mart Raud, Ralf Parve and Vladimir Beekman. The modes of expression of these authors may vary, but their individual styles are less clearly expressed than is usual in poetry, because different authors’ styles became relatively uniform due to the canonised aesthetics of Socialist Realism.

Victory Day in Modern Odessa: A Conflict Between Two Concepts of Memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Ирина Юрьевна Ямпольская
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Symbolic Action ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of

Формирование идентичности в современной Украине связано с выработкой отношения ко многим аспектам истории, прежде всего истории советского периода. Важнейший момент - отношение к Великой Отечественной войне. В 2014-2015 гг. после резкого ухудшения российско-украинских отношений в рамках декоммунизации была создана новая официальная концепция праздника. Отношение к реформированию Дня Победы является тестом на лояльность не только для политиков и рядовых граждан, но и для целых регионов, которые различаются по уровню пророссийской ориентации. Консервативная оппозиция, оказавшаяся включенной в процесс реформирования, но не имеющая возможности противодействовать ему открыто, часто выражает свою точку зрения через символические действия. Так, в Одессе «низовым» символическим высказыванием является подчеркнутое следование традиционным и «пророссийским» формам ритуальности, связанным с Днем Победы: игнорирование новой даты проведения праздника (на мероприятия, организованные центральной властью 8 мая, приходят значительно меньше одесситов, чем на традиционные мероприятия 9 мая); внимание к запрещенной символике (красным знаменам, советским воинским символам, советским военным песням, георгиевским лентам); демонстрация портретов ветеранов войны, что является следованием формату «Бессмертного полка» (формат возник как деидеологизированный, но в современной Украине воспринимающийся как «пророссийский»); использование в различных формах «нежелательной» лексики, например, выражения «Великая Отечественная война» вместо «Вторая мировая война» и др. The formation of identity in modern Ukraine is connected, in particular, with attitudes towards many aspects of its history, primarily the history of the Soviet period. The most important of these is the attitude towards the Great Patriotic War, the term used in former republics of the Soviet Union to refer to WWII. In 2014-2015, after the sharp deterioration in Russian-Ukrainian relations, a new official conception of Victory Day was developed as part of the process of de-communization. One’s attitude towards the reform of the holiday became a test of loyalty not only for politicians and ordinary citizens, but also for entire regions of the country, which, as is known, differ in their level of pro-Russian sentiment. The conservative, pro-Russian opposition to the reform process, which was drawn into it but was unable to oppose it openly, often expresses its point of view through symbolic action. In Odessa, for instance, the grassroots symbolic expression of this attitude is an emphatic adherence to the traditional and “pro-Russian” forms of the ritual associated with Victory Day. This includes ignoring the new date of the holiday, May 8 (many fewer Odessa residents turn out for the events organized by the central government on that date as compared to their participation in old-style events on May 9); the use of forbidden symbols such as red flags, Soviet military images and songs, and St. George ribbons (a traditional mark of remembrance of those who died in WWII); parading with portraits of war veterans, following the model of the “Immortal Regiment” (a patriotic society with its own special practice of street marching; while this practice began in Russia as ideologically neutral, in modern Ukraine it is perceived as “pro-Russian”); and the use of “undesirable” vocabulary, for example, use of the expression “Great Patriotic War” instead of “World War II.”

Not by Firkowicz’s Fault: Daniel Chwolson’s Comic Blunders in Research of Hebrew Epigraphy of the Crimea and Caucasus, and their Impact on Jewish Studies in Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-668
Author(s):  
Michael Nosonovsky ◽  
Dan Shapira ◽  
Daria Vasyutinsky-Shapira
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
Scholarly Community ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Academic Argument

AbstractDaniel Chwolson (1819–1911) made a huge impact upon the research of Hebrew epigraphy from the Crimea and Caucasus. Despite that, his role in the more-than-a-century-long controversy regarding Crimean Hebrew tomb inscriptions has not been well studied. Chwolson, at first, adopted Abraham Firkowicz’s forgeries, and then quickly realized his mistake; however, he could not back up. Th e criticism by both Abraham Harkavy and German Hebraists questioned Chwolson’s scholarly qualifications and integrity. Consequently, the interference of political pressure into the academic argument resulted in the prevailing of the scholarly flawed opinion. We revisit the interpretation of these findings by Russian, Jewish, Karaite and Georgian historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the Soviet period, Jewish Studies in the USSR were in neglect and nobody seriously studied the whole complex of the inscriptions from the South of Russia / the Soviet Union. The remnants of the scholarly community were hypnotized by Chwolson’s authority, who was the teacher of their teachers’ teachers. At the same time, Western scholars did not have access to these materials and/or lacked the understanding of the broader context, and thus a number of erroneous Chwolson’s conclusion have entered academic literature for decades.

Utopias of One

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Kotin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War I ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Original Research ◽  
The Soviet Union

This book is a new account of utopian writing. It examines how eight writers—Henry David Thoreau, W. E. B. Du Bois, Osip and Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, Anna Akhmatova, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, and J. H. Prynne—construct utopias of one within and against modernity's two large-scale attempts to harmonize individual and collective interests: liberalism and communism. The book begins in the United States between the buildup to the Civil War and the end of Jim Crow; continues in the Soviet Union between Stalinism and the late Soviet period; and concludes in England and the United States between World War I and the end of the Cold War. In this way it captures how writers from disparate geopolitical contexts resist state and normative power to construct perfect worlds—for themselves alone. The book contributes to debates about literature and politics, presenting innovative arguments about aesthetic difficulty, personal autonomy, and complicity and dissent. It models a new approach to transnational and comparative scholarship, combining original research in English and Russian to illuminate more than a century and a half of literary and political history.

POST-SOVIET CITY AS A PALIMPSEST

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Coordinator ◽  
Post Soviet Period

The author of the publication reviews the photobook “Palimpsests”, published in 2018 in the publishing house “Ad Marginem Press” with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The book presents photos of post-Soviet cities taken by M. Sher. Preface, the author of which is the coordinator of the “Democracy” program of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Russia N. Fatykhova, as well as articles by M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush, which accompany these photos, contain explanation of the peculiarities of urban space formation and patterns of its habitation in the Soviet Union times and in the post-Soviet period. The author of the publication highly appreciates the publication under review. Analyzing the photographic works of M. Sher and their interpretation undertaken in the articles, the author of the publication agrees with the main conclusions of N. Fatykhova, M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush with regards to the importance of the role of the state in the processes of urban development and urbanization in the Soviet and post-Soviet space, but points out that the second factor that has a key influence on these processes is ownership relations. The paper positively assesses the approach proposed by the authors of the photobook to the study of the post-Soviet city as an architectural and landscape palimpsest consisting mainly of two layers, “socialist” and “capitalist”. The author of the publication specifically emphasizes the importance of analyzing the archetypal component of this palimpsest, pointing out that the articles published in the reviewed book do not pay sufficient attention to this issue. Particular importance is attributed by the author to the issue of metageography of post-Soviet cities and meta-geographical approach to their exploration. Emphasizing that the urban palimpsest is a system of realities, each in turn including a multitude of ideas, meanings, symbols, and interpretations, the author points out that the photobook “Palimpsests” is actually an invitation to a scientific game with space, which should start a new direction in the study of post-Soviet urban space.

Development of the Legal Framework for Regulating Relations for the Training and Retraining of Judges in the Soviet Period (1946–1991)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 39-47
Author(s):  
S. I. Pukhnarevich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
The Soviet Union

The article shows the formation of the legal basis for the formation, development and functioning of the system of training and retraining of judicial personnel in the country in the period from 1946 until the end of the USSR. The article also explores the forms and approaches to the organization of improving the quality of the staff of the judicial system. It was concluded that the Soviet Union has formed an ideologically oriented, strictly centralized Federal-Republican system of professional development of court employees.

Cold War Exiles and the CIA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Tromly
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Home Base ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Secret War

During the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, the United States government unleashed covert operations intended to weaken the Soviet Union. As part of these efforts, the CIA undertook support of Russian exiles, populations uprooted either during World War II or by the Russian Revolution decades before. No one seemed better prepared to fight in the American secret war against communism than the uprooted Russians, whom the CIA directed to carry out propaganda, espionage, and subversion operations from their home base in West Germany. Yet the American engagement of Russian exiles had unpredictable outcomes. Drawing on recently declassified and previously untapped sources, Cold War Exiles and the CIA examines how the CIA’s Russian operations became entangled with the internal struggles of Russia abroad and also the espionage wars of the superpowers in divided Germany. What resulted was a transnational political sphere involving different groups of Russian exiles, American and German anti-communists, and spies operating on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Inadvertently, CIA’s patronage of Russian exiles forged a complex sub-front in the wider Cold War, demonstrating the ways in which the hostilities of the Cold War played out in ancillary conflicts involving proxies and non-state actors.

scholarly journals “As quiet as a mouse”: Media use in Azerbaijan

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (s1) ◽  
pp. 893-911
Author(s):  
Ilgar Seyidov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Media System ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Supportive Role ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One

AbstractDuring the Soviet period, the media served as one of the main propagandist tools of the authoritarian regime, using a standardized and monotype media system across the Soviet Republics. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, 15 countries became independent. The transition from Soviet communism to capitalism has led to the reconstruction of economic, socio-cultural, and political systems. One of the most affected institutions in post-Soviet countries was the media. Media have played a supportive role during rough times, when there was, on the one hand, the struggle for liberation and sovereignty, and, on the other hand, the need for nation building. It has been almost 30 years since the Soviet Republics achieved independence, yet the media have not been freed from political control and continue to serve as ideological apparatuses of authoritarian regimes in post-Soviet countries. Freedom of speech and independent media are still under threat. The current study focuses on media use in Azerbaijan, one of the under-researched post-Soviet countries. The interviews for this study were conducted with 40 participants living in Nakhichevan and Baku. In-depth, semi-structured interview techniques were used as research method. Findings are discussed under six main themes in the conclusion.

Military Technology Races

1999 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vally Koubi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Technology ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
Strategic Defense ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Military

Because of the nature of modern weapons, significant innovations in arms technology have the potential to induce dramatic changes in the international distribution of power. Consider, for example, the “strategic defense initiative” (SDI), a program initiated by the United States in the early 1980s. Had the program been successfully completed, it might have led to a substantial devaluation of Soviet nuclear capabilities and put the United States in a very dominant position. It should not then come as a surprise that interstate rivalry, especially among super powers, often takes the form of a race for technological superiority. Mary Acland-Hood claims that although the United States and the Soviet Union together accounted for roughly half of the world's military expenditures in the early 1980s, their share of world military research and development (R&D) expenditures was about 80 percent. As further proof of the perceived importance of R&D, note that whereas the overall U.S. defense budget increased by 38 percent (from $225.1 billion to $311.6 billion in real terms) from 1981 to 1987, military R&D spending increased by 100 percent (from $20.97 billion to $41.96 billion). Moreover, before World War II military R&D absorbed on average less than 1 percent of the military expenditure of major powers, but since then it has grown to 11–13 percent. The emphasis on military technology is bound to become more pronounced in the future as R&D becomes the main arena for interstate competition.

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