History in Wood

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-89
Author(s):  
Alexey Golubev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Building Material ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Scale Modeling ◽  
The Soviet Union

This chapter turns to other types of material objects that were capable of performing history: timber buildings associated with cultural heritage and historical ship replicas. The last three decades of the Soviet Union evidenced a fast growth in the number of heritage sites related to traditional wooden architecture. The chapter examines the museumification of old architecture as a process that was similar to the scale modeling hobby in its politics, but stimulated the nationalist understanding of Soviet history in its Romantic, rather than Techno-Utopian, interpretation. In particular, the chapter shows how wood, a traditional building material, became a symbol that objectified the “deep cultural roots” of Soviet society and served, because of its texture, as a living witness of its authentic history.

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.

New Materials for Studying Preparation and Staging of the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957

2018 ◽  
pp. 550-563
Author(s):  
Daniel Sawert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Unique Event ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Local Traditions

The article assesses archival materials on the festival movement in the Soviet Union in 1950s, including its peak, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in 1957 in Moscow. Even now the Moscow festival is seen in the context of international cultural politics of the Cold War and as a unique event for the Soviet Union. The article is to put the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in the context of other youth festivals held in the Soviet Union. The festivals of 1950s provided a field for political, social, and cultural experiments. They also have been the crucible of a new way of communication and a new language of design. Furthermore, festivals reflected the new (althogh relative) liberalism in the Soviet Union. This liberalism, first of all, was expressed in the fact that festivals were organized by the Komsomol and other Soviet public and cultural organisations. Taking the role of these organisations into consideration, the research draws on the documents of the Ministry of culture, the All-Russian Stage Society, as well as personal documents of the artists. Furthermore, the author has gained access to new archive materials, which have until now been part of no research, such as documents of the N. Krupskaya Central Culture and Art Center and of the central committees of various artistic trade unions. These documents confirm the hypothesis that the festivals provided the Komsomol and the Communist party with a means to solve various social, educational, and cultural problems. For instance, in Central Asia with its partiarchal society, the festivals focuced on female emancipation. In rural Central Asia, as well as in other non-russian parts of the Soviet Union, there co-existed different ways of celebrating. Local traditions intermingled with cultural standards prescribed by Moscow. At the first glance, the modernisation of the Soviet society was succesful. The youth acquired political and cultural level that allowed the Soviet state to compete with the West during the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students. During the festival, however, it became apparent, that the Soviet cultural scheme no longer met the dictates of times. Archival documents show that after the Festival cultural and party officials agreed to ease off dogmatism and to tolerate some of the foreign cultural phenomena.

The Cornucopia in the Minefield

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 253-279
Author(s):  
Jennifer B. Spock
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Spiritual Path ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Limited Scope

Abstract The study of monasticism in Russia has found new acolytes since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. With the separation of the Soviet republics, religion became, and continues to become, a vibrant subfield of Russian studies. This article examines the problems inherent in attempting to grasp the day-to-day life of monks and monasteries given their individual characteristics, social classes, roles, and the wide variety, yet often limited scope, of various texts and material objects that can be used as sources. The vast source base is an embarrassment of riches in one sense, but problematic in another as prescriptive and normative texts must be understood in context. One important element that has not been directly addressed is the cacophony of sound, the interruptions, and the distractions of the constant activity of expanding cloisters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. How did monks maintain their spiritual path and pious duties when on service expeditions outside the monastery: when engaged in salt-production, fishing, trade, rent-collecting, or other activities outside its walls? How intrusive were building projects, which abounded in the period, or even efforts to adorn the churches? How strict was oversight, or how weak? Such questions still need answers and can only be fully understood by integrating diverse source bases. This article uses Solovki, Holy Trinity, and Kirillov monasteries to exemplify the problems that remain in understanding the daily lives of monastics and their adherents within and without the confines of the cloister.

scholarly journals Of Loss and Loot: Stalin-Era Culture, Foreign Aid, and Trophy Goods in the Soviet Union during the 1940s

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 219-258
Author(s):  
Nathalie Moine
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army

This article focuses on the influx and circulation of foreign objects in the Soviet Union during the 1940s in order to investigate the specific role of these objects during World War II. It reveals how the distribution of humanitarian aid intersected with both the (non)recognition of the genocide of Soviet Jews during the Nazi occupation, and with Stalinist social hierarchies. It explains why erasing the origins and precise circumstances through which these objects entered Soviet homes could in turn be used to hide the abuses that the Red Army perpetrated against their defeated enemies. Finally, it revises the image of a Soviet society that discovered luxury and Western modernity for the first time during the war by reconsidering the place and the trajectories of these objects in Stalinist material culture of the interwar period.

scholarly journals Legal support of the cultural heritage protection in the Ukrainian SSR (second half of the 1950s – end of the 1980s)

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
T. V. Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Special Aspect ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Heritage Protection ◽  
The Law ◽  
The 1950S

The research covers the development of the legislation of the Ukrainian SSR cultural heritage protection problems. The rapid development of sectoral legislation in the second half of the twentieth century was driven by the need of preservation of cultural heritage sites, damaged during the Second World War, or affected by the improper use by various institutions and organizations.The purpose of the article is to analyze the specifics of legal regulation of cultural heritage protection in the Ukrainian SSR in the second half of the 1950 s – the end of the 1980 s.Scientific novelty. The analysis of the legislative acts of the Verkhovna Rada of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as well as by-laws of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR revealed the specifics of the legal regulation of cultural heritage protection in the Ukrainian SSR in the second half of the 1950 s – late 1980s, which consisted of application of separate national legal terminology. The main directions of legal regulation of cultural heritage protection during the period under review are singled out.Conclusions. Soviet legislation on the protection of cultural heritage, as any sectoral legislation, was unified, and the republican special-purpose laws duplicated Union norms. The legislation of the Ukrainian SSR of the 1950s – 1980s concerning the cultural heritage protection was developed in accordance with the Union legislation, as well as the decrees and orders of the USSR Government. At the same time, both federal and republican legislation had basic international rules, including the provisions of the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, signed by the Soviet Union. The special aspect of the the Ukrainian SSR legislation was the consideration of some national traditions, including terminological ones. This could be noticed in the name of the Law of the Ukrainian SSR from July 13, 1978 «On the Protection and Use of Monuments of History and Culture», in which instead of the term «памятник» (monument) in the Russian language and the law, the term «monument» was introduced more wide term «пямятка» (site). In general, due to the consistent policy on conservation and extensive legislation, we have been able to preserve the destruction of monuments that remind the thousand-year history and culture of Ukraine.

scholarly journals «Сталин и Мао слушают вас»: образы лидеров СССР и КНР на страницах журнала «Огонек» (1949–1953 гг.)

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-594
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Avdashkin ◽  
◽  
Igor V. Sibiryakov ◽  
Tatyana V. Raeva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
The One

The aim of the article is to examine the process of constructing the images of Stalin and Mao Zedong in the material of Soviet central newspapers on the themes of the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) and Soviet-Chinese friendship. Our focus on the techniques of such constructions allow for dealing with a number of research issues, such as which conceptions of the political leaders were rendered to the Soviet audiences and in which way was this implemented; was there a potential for dynamics in treating the subjects and if this was the case what were the factors that played a role in such dynamics. Data and methods. For our database of primary sources we have chosen the ”Ogonyok” issues published in the period between October 1949 and March 1953. The authors of the present article were interested in references in the magazine texts but also in the images of Stalin and Mao. Hence, the research lens of historical imagology allowed us to examine the images under study as complex synthetical constructions, the constructions that were impacted by inner and outer factors in play in the Soviet society itself, including its political culture, the specific features of representations in the sphere of internationl relations, etc. The illustrative material was used for the sake of further verification and detailization. Results. The ”Ogonyok” material on the theme of Soviet-Chinese friendship included a considerable amount of texts and their visual supplements, with Stalin and Mao as their central personages. The thematical distribution of the database has shown that its main themes are Soviet-Chinese friendship described in hierarchical terms as the ”teacher-pupil” relationship, the achievements of socialist transformation in China, etc. Conclusions. The personification of the images of the leaders of the USSR and the PRC was designed to promote the positive attitudes towards the main Soviet ally, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to contribute to the legitimization of the USSR’s leading position not only in the Soviet-Chinese interaction, but in the whole of the Socialist world as well. Mao’s leading role in the transformations of the Chinese society confirmed to the Soviet audiences the correctness of the development model in the Soviet Union itself. Numerous presentations of the good will with which the Chinese side was ready to follow the ”Stalin recipe” in building socialism served as a marker that the ”great friendship” was under Moscow’s control.

scholarly journals THE SOVIET MODEL OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE OF THE FATE OF THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
V.V. Sukhonos
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Groups ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Soviet Model

The article is devoted to the constitutional and legal issues of local government organizations. The main attention is paid to the Soviet model of local government, which, in the period of the industrialization of the country, focused on the further strengthening of the Soviet state apparatus, the deployment of the so-called “Soviet democracy” and the fight against bureaucratic defects. However, such a situation as a whole was not typical of the Soviet system. That is why the Bolsheviks attempts to attract the poor sections of the rural population. However, success in this direction was caused not so much by the strengthening of the Soviet economy as a whole, but by the opportunity for the rural poor to plunder wealthy peasants, which had developed because of the dictatorship of the proletariat existing in the USSR. Subsequently, the Bolshevik Party raised the issue of organizing special groups of poverty or factions for an open political struggle to attract the middle peoples to the proletariat and to isolate wealthy peasants (the so-called “kulaks”) during the elections to the Soviets, cooperatives, etc. With the onset of socialist reconstruction, there was a need to organize poverty, because it was an important element and the establishment of “Soviet democracy in the countryside.” The Stalin Constitution of 1936 transformed the Soviets. From 1918, they were called the Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army Deputies, and now, with the entry into force of the Stalin Constitution, the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. This transformation of the Soviets reflected the victory of the socialist system throughout the national economy, radical changes in the class composition of Soviet society, and a new triumph of “socialist democracy”. In addition, the “victory of socialism” in the USSR made possible the transition to universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot. On December 24 and 29, 1939, citizens of the Soviet Union elected their representatives to the local Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. 99.21 % of the total number of voters took part in the vote. The election results are another testament to the growing influence of the Bolshevik Party on the population of the Soviet Union, which has largely replaced the activities of the Soviets themselves, including the local ones. Holding elections to the regional, regional, district, district, city, village and settlement councils of workers’ deputies completed the restructuring of all state bodies in accordance with the Stalin Constitution and on its basis. With the adoption in 1977 of the last Constitution of the USSR, the councils of workers’ deputies were renamed the councils of people’s deputies. In 1985, the last non-alternative elections were held for 52,041 local councils, and in 1988, their structure became more complicated: there were presidencies organizing the work of regional, regional, autonomous regions, autonomous districts, district, city and rayon in the cities of Soviets. People’s Deputies. Within the framework of the city (city subordination), village, and town councils, this work is carried out directly by the heads of the designated Councils. On December 26, 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR introduced regular amendments to the Constitution of the USSR, which formally abolished the Presidencies, but did not prohibit their existence. On September 5, 1991, the Constitution of 1977 was effectively abolished. Finally, it happened after December 26, 1991, when the USSR actually ceased to exist. Thus, existing in the USSR during the period of socialist reconstruction and subsequent transformations that began with the processes of industrialization and ended as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the model of local government organization remained ineffective due to its actual replacement by the activities of the governing bodies of the ruling Communist Party. Keywords: Local Government; the system of Councils; local Councils; Council of Deputies of the working people; Council of People’s Deputies; Soviet local government.

The Stalinist Revision of History: The Case of Brest-Litovsk

1952 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-85
Author(s):  
Raymond L. Garthoff
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Historiography

The events leading to the rise of Stalin to sole prominence in the Soviet Union and the general political picture of the totalitarian Stalinist regime are now familiar, but specific forms of the evolution of “Stalinism” are often not adequately understood. Evolving Soviet historiography is an unusually informative mirror of these developments, since it not only attempts to describe them, but implicitly embodies them as well. The present article is an analysis of one theme from early Soviet history, treatment of which in Soviet historiography exemplifies both the trend of Soviet historiography as a whole, and the trend of Stalinism as an emergent totalitarian ideology based on Bolshevism.

The Cultural Roots of Estonia's Successful Transition: How Historical Legacies Shaped the 1990s

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Bennich-Björkman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Elite Networks ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article investigates the cultural roots of Estonia's surprisingly successful transitions in the 1990s. Taking the point of departure in historical institutionalism, two layers of political cultural legacies are identified as particularly crucial in preparing Estonia for the democratic government installed after independence. First, the article argues that even in a Baltic context, Estonia stood out as a hotbed for social initiatives and elite networks during Communist times. Second, to understand why such liberalisation within the authoritarian Communist regime started earlier in Estonia than elsewhere in the Soviet Union, there is a need to acknowledge the importance that the historical experiences of the inter-war republic played. Estonia then developed a civic culture that partly survived even during the Päts regime from 1934 to 1939. These experiences surfaced once the yolk of Stalinism was lifted in the 1950s and shaped Estonia under Communism into a society of “collective mobilization” where democratically inclined counter-elites could form.

Russian Organized Crime: Its History, Structure and Function

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Albini ◽  
R.E. Rogers ◽  
Victor Shabalin ◽  
Valery Kutushev ◽  
Vladimir Moiseev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Client Relationships ◽  
And Function

In analyzing Russian organized crime, the authors describe and classify the four major forms of organized crime: 1) political-social, 2) mercenary, 3) in-group, and 4) syndicated. Though the first three classifications of the aforementioned types of organized crime existed throughout Soviet history, it was the syndicated form that began to emerge in the late 1950's, expanding during the corrupt Breznev years (1964–82), exploding during perestroika, and reaching pandemic levels after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. The abrupt transformation of the Russian society from a centralized command economy to one driven by the forces of market capitalism created the socio-pathological conditions for the malignant spread of mercenary and especially syndicated organized crime. New criminals syndicates were created by an alliance of criminal gangs/groups and former members of the Soviet Union's communist nomenklatura (bureaucracy) and the consequence was the criminalization of much of the Russian economy. The social structure of these syndicates is based on a loose association of patron-client relationships rather than a centralized hierarchical system; their function is to provide illicit goods/services desired by the people. The authors conclude their study by emphasizing that what has taken place in Russia is not peculiar to the Russian people, but exemplifies what can happen to societies that experience rapid and intense social change.

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