scholarly journals Captioning the occupation: The role of textual elements in the process of building national narratives in historical museums

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jarosz
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Master Narrative ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Historical Museums ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Soviet Union

Background: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in the ideology vacuum it left behind, the question of national identity became one of great importance. Adopting the Benedict Anderson constructivist idea that nations are imagined – or socially constructed communities that have to be continuously reproduced in order to exist, we aim to analyse whether and in what ways historical and archaeological museums can serve as tools in the process of building or reshaping national identity in the post-Soviet landscape in order to achieve the state ambitions of the nation. Museums are a powerful tool for policymakers; they not only present neutral objects but also usually enter into dialogue with visitors and create a certain vision of history. The stories told in museums can incorporate selected episodes into a national narrative. Aim, Method, and Discussion: The author aims to verify whether there is a disconnection between two or three parallel texts, between the texts and the visual image, and finally between the texts in question and the master narrative, as imposed by the policymakers. The materials for the analysis are captions, labels, audio guides, and texts from the websites, from the Museum of Soviet Occupation, Tbilisi, Georgia; the Museum of Occupation and Fights for Freedom in Vilnius, Lithuania; and the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kiev, Ukraine. The research demonstrated that the analysed texts in the museums in question are a key element of building the museums’ narratives. In addition, the choice of language version is a significant factor that strengthens the museum’s discourse. Captions and labels are an integral part of the narrative styles. Conclusion: The caption is a key element in relation to what a spectator thinks they are seeing: if the contextualising text is changed, the meaning of the artefacts and of the exhibits changes to a large degree.

Identity Construction in Latvia's “Singing Revolution”: Why Inter-Ethnic Conflict Failed to Occur

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ginkel
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
Virtual Absence ◽  
Conflict Processes ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Benign Process ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Political Actions

IntroductionAmong the nationalist revolutions that spread across Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Latvia seceded from the Soviet Union through a relatively benign process marked by the virtual absence of violent conflict. Several issues were conflated in this movement. Latvia's independence was about democracy, historical redress, and national autonomy. Yet, each of these areas included an ethnic component. Would a Latvian democracy make room for Russians? Would Latvians seek revenge against Russians for the Soviet annexation of the Baltic republics? In the event of conflict between Moscow and Riga, whom would Russophone residents of Latvia support? The demographic situation of Latvia—featuring a near balance of Latvians and mostly Russophone non-Latvians at the time of independence—suggested the potential for ethnic conflict. The forecast of conflict, though, oversimplified the roles that ethnicity and national identity play in affecting political actions. The potential for conflict was predicated on the assumption that individuals naturally identify primarily with others within their ethnic group and act competitively against members of the ethnic “other.” The fact, then, that Latvians and Russians did not clash violently during Latvia's “Singing Revolution” begs the question why inter-ethnic conflict did not occur in this case. This article explains this lack of conflict by focusing on the formation of Latvian identity in the period immediately preceding independence. I argue that individuals in nationalizing states intentionally act with reference to their national identity, and this sense of national identity is not some fixed, exogenous variable. Instead, it is socially constructed. We cannot hope to explain ethnic conflict processes without first understanding the factors that drive ethnic and national identity during chaotic times of change.

Military Mobilisation and National Identity in the Soviet Union

War & Society ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Blauvelt
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Soviet Union

Modern domestic cinema and the legacy of shaken Aimanov

Keruen ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (69) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Jumadilov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
National Cinema ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet state of post-Soviet autonomous republics turned out to be the ideology for which cinematographers and screenwriters have to make a film epic of epoch - national cinema. In this article, the author can only use the ever-present cinematography, the unmerciful nationalistic culture, the ideological orientation of the film industry, the uniqueness or national identity. It's a good idea to have a world-renowned artisan who is doing all the same, seeking internationalization and gloss? Another - cinematic and astrophysical art of Shaken Aimanov, whose works live in volumes or polls, and others. For many years, many changes have taken place in the national cinema, such as national culture, a national emblem of national culture. For the first time in the history of national cinema, national cinema and the world of cinema, the future and future films have been transformed into a lot of changes. The Concept of distinguished singer Shaken Aimanova is embodied in the volume, which, unlike the researchers and artists all over the world of cinema Shaken Aimnayev, the director of which, as long as he is a filmmaker, creates a film studio as part of national culture.

Dancing beyond the Cactus Curtain

2020 ◽  
pp. 222-252
Author(s):  
K. Mitchell Snow
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
International Borders ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
Modern Dancers ◽  
The Moment

As the dance artists that the Mexican government created through its schools and companies matured, they carried its dances across international borders. The tensions between nationalist esthetics and more formal approaches to creating art were increasingly visible in Mexican painting, yet its fractious dancers proved established a unified front when it came to performing outside of Mexico. The resulting encounters with the official performing arts policies of the Soviet Union and China shifted their perspectives on issues of esthetics and technique. Their government’s concurrent discovery that the folk dances its modern dancers performed overseas provided positive press changed its perspective as well. Amalia Hernández and her independent Ballet Folklórico would garner the direct support of Mexico’s president and her success in providing potent stagings of national identity for audiences inside and outside her homeland marked the moment when Mexico’s dancers became the equals of its celebrated painters.

Japan’s “Northern Territories”

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-57
Author(s):  
Alexander Bukh
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Grassroots Organizations ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Northern Territories

This chapter explores national identity entrepreneurship related to Japan’s territories occupied by the Soviet Union in the waning days of WWII and focuses on the origins and transformations in the “Japan’s inherent territory” narrative. Originating in the critical juncture created by the defeat, the Soviet occupation, and the domestic reforms, the “inherent territory” framing of the occupied islands was initially utilized by the grassroots movement as part of an attempt to draw attention to the economic plight of those that suffered from the Soviet occupation. In the early 1950s, Hokkaido Prefecture embraced the irredentist cause as a means of political struggle with Tokyo. From the late 1960s, as a result of Tokyo’s appropriation of the “Northern Territories” and cooptation of the grassroots organizations, the narrative has changed significantly. From legitimation strategy, the “inherent territory” has gradually transformed into an end in itself, a symbol of injustice inflicted upon the nation.

scholarly journals Comparative Religion and Anti-Religious Museums of Soviet Russia in the 1920s

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Marianna Shakhnovich
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Comparative Religion ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Historical Museums ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Selection Of

By the end of the 1920s, more than 100 anti-religious museums had been opened in the Soviet Union. In addition, anti-religious departments appeared in the exhibitions of many local historical museums. In Moscow, the Central Anti-Religious Museum was opened in the Cathedral of the Strastnoi Monastery. At that time, the first museum promoting a comparative and historical approach to the study and presentation of religious artifacts was opened in Petrograd in 1922. The formation of Museum of Comparative Religion was based on the conjunction of the activities of the Petrograd Excursion Institute, the Academy of Sciences, and the Ethnographic department of Petrograd University. In this paper, based on archival materials, we analyze the methodological principles of the formation of the exhibitions at the newly founded museum, along with its themes, structure, and selection of exhibits. The Museum of Comparative Religion had a very short life before it was transformed into the Leningrad anti-religious museum, but its principles were inherited by the Museum of the History of Religion, which was opened in 1932.

scholarly journals Stability of Elliptical Galaxies. Numerical Experiments

1987 ◽  
Vol 127 ◽  
pp. 315-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Merritt
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
English Language ◽  
Elliptical Galaxies ◽  
Equilibrium Structure ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Spherical System ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Anisotropic Models ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Gravitating Systems

The idea that dynamical instabilities might play an important role in determining the equilibrium structure of elliptical galaxies is a startling one, especially to those of us who are accustomed to associating instabilities with rapidly-rotating systems like disk galaxies. The shock is even greater when we learn that these instabilities have been taken seriously by workers in the Soviet Union for a long time. As Dr. Polyachenko points out in his talk, instabilities affecting spherical, non-rotating galaxies were being discussed by Soviet astronomers as long ago as 1972. Much of this work has recently become more accessible through the publication of an English-language version of Fridman and Polyachenko's monograph, Physics of Gravitating Systems (Fridman and Polyachenko 1984). In the West, it appears that only two people were prescient enough to systematically test the stability of spherical models before learning of the Soviet work (Hénon 1973; Barnes 1985). In particular, Barnes discovered independently that a spherical system composed of predominantly radial orbits evolves rapidly into a bar. Subsequent work has demonstrated that even some mildly anisotropic models can be unstable in this way.

Explaining Kazakhstani identity: supraethnic identity, ethnicity, language, and citizenship

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 815-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Michael Rees ◽  
Nora Webb Williams
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ordered Probit ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Kazakh Population ◽  
Global Norms ◽  
Ordered Probit Models ◽  
Made In ◽  
Analyze Data

The demographic composition of Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union presented a dilemma to the new Kazakhstani government: Should it advance a Kazakh identity as paramount, possibly alienating the large non-Kazakh population? Or should it advocate for a non-ethnicized national identity? How would those decisions be made in light of global norms of liberal multiculturalism? And, critically, would citizens respond to new frames of identity? This paper provides an empirical look at supraethnic identity-building in Kazakhstan – that is, at the development of a national identity that individuals place above or alongside their ethnic identification. We closely examine the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan to describe how Kazakhstani policies intersect with theories of nationalism and nation-building. We then use ordered probit models to analyze data from a 2014 survey to examine how citizens of Kazakhstan associate with a “Kazakhstani” supraethnic identity. Our findings suggest that despite the Assembly of People's rhetoric, there are still significant barriers to citizen-level adoption of a supraethnic identity in Kazakhstan, particularly regarding language. However, many individuals do claim an association with Kazakhstani identity, especially those individuals who strongly value citizenship in the abstract.

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanat Kundakbayeva ◽  
Didar Kassymova
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Common System ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government

The general perception of Western analysts and observers is that the nation-states created as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union all treat the memory of the dark, repressive aspects of the Stalinist regime in public spaces as a symbolic element in the creation of a new post-Soviet identity [Denison, Michael. 2009. “The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.”Europe-Asia Studies61 (7): 1167–1187]. We argue that the government of Kazakhstan employs non-nationalistic discourse in its treatment of Stalinist victims’ commemoration in a variety of forms, through the creation of modern memorial complexes at the sites of horrific Soviet activity (mass burial places, labor camps, and detention centers), purpose-built museum exhibitions, and the commemorative speeches of its president and other officials. Kazakhstan's strategy in commemorating its Soviet past is designed to highlight the inclusiveness of repression on all peoples living in its territory at that time, not just Kazakhs, thereby assisting in bringing together its multinational and multiethnic society. Thus, the official stance treats this discourse as an important symbolic source of shaping the collective memory of the nation, based on “a general civil identity without prioritizing one ethnic group over another — a national unity, founded on the recognition of a common system of values and principles for all citizens” [Shakirova, Svetlana. 2012. “Letters to Nazarbaev: Kazakhstan's Intellectuals Debate National Identity.” February 7. Accessed July 28, 2015.http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/discussion/letters-nazarbaev-kazakhstans-intellectuals-debate-national-identity].

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