The Dissolution of the Soviet Union

In late December 1991—some 74 years after the Bolsheviks had taken power in Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin—the Soviet Communist regime and the Soviet state itself ceased to exist. The demise of the Soviet Union occurred less than seven years after Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Communist Party. Soon after taking office in March 1985, Gorbachev had launched a series of drastic political and economic changes that he hoped would improve and strengthen the Communist system and bolster the country's superpower status. But in the end, far from strengthening Communism, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (official openness) led inadvertently to the collapse of the Soviet regime and the unraveling of the Soviet state. This article analyzes the breakup of the Soviet Union, explaining why that outcome, which had seemed so unlikely at the outset, occurred in such a short period of time.

The Three-Decade Cycle of Lithuanian Prose

In the period of 1989-2020 Lithuanian literature experienced a very dynamic literary development. The aim of the article is to highlight specifics of the new cycle and to analyze the prose trends of each decade of regained independence. The author discusses the literary process more synchronically than diachronically. The first period, i.e. the transition from the Soviet regime to the new system, was especially outstanding as the censorship was eliminated, the previously banned works of deportees and resisters were legalized, the postwar émigré writers returned back to culture and opportunities for innovation opened up.The role of writer as a cultural hero diminished. Former writers loyal to the Soviet regime described this situation as crisis, while the younger generation developed postmodernist way of writing. Many works were based on the cultural and historical memory reckoning with the Soviet era. All genres underwent certain transformations, such as emergence of peculiar essay genre, spread of ego-documentaries, revival of short stories, and flourishing popular literature.Serious changes took place after 2004 when Lithuania joined the European Union, which led to economic emigration and encouraged changes in mentality and expanse of local contexts. Mobile, “transit” type of Lithuanian character emerged who changed his place of residence but felt lonely in the global world. This is a huge innovation, bearing in mind the sedentary agrarian Lithuanian culture and the confines of the iron curtain during the Soviet era. Increased quantity of published books decreased their quality.

Leading Russian legal theorist is 80 years old. For the anniversary of V.M. Syrykh

Dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the famous legal scholar Vladimir Mikhailovich Syrykh, the author of over 40 monographs, textbooks, teaching aids, many hundreds of scientific articles and other materials. The scientists contribution to legal science is analyzed. We focus on the methodology of the theory of law, method structure, content of the materialist theory of law, etc. The exceptional contribution of the scientist to preparation and publication of the Encyclopedic Dictionary Legal Science and Legal Ideology of Russia is distinguished. The ideas and assessments of the author's recent historical and legal monographs on the Soviet regime, the Red Terror, and Stalinist repressions are illustrated.

Identity of Three Bulgarian Christian Communities in Sofia

This article focuses on the history and identity of three Bulgarian Christian communities from the second part of 20th c. until today. The article presents the results of ethnographic explorations between 2010 and 2020 carried out on a comparative basis among three Bulgarian Christian denominations in Sofia. The case of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church shows that believers might be desrcibed as ‘believing and belonging, without behaving’ (PRC 2017b). Under the Soviet regime, members of the Bulgarian Catholic Church managed to maintain their religious identity due to their interconfessional links. Their religious identity was strengthened by their witnessing repressed priests, monks and selfless members of the laity. Modern Bulgarian Christians have multiple identities, but prioritize their ethnic identity, followed respectively by their identities as religious in general terms and finally specific confessional identities.

The Sovietisation of Rural Areas of Lithuania: A Case Study of the Lenin’s Way Kolkhoz in Deltuva (1948–1957)

This article presents the story of the establishment of one kolkhoz, Lenin’s Way, located in the Deltuva district, as a typical attempt at the Sovietisation of rural Lithuania. The microhistorical approach is applied in the article, facilitating a more specific and detailed illustration of the processes that have been under way in postwar Lithuanian rural areas in historiography up till now. The author does not convey the Sovietisation of rural Lithuania through the prism of the partisan war or terror, but tries to understand the different expectations and ambitions of reform implementers and the ordinary people who suddenly found themselves as part of a kolkhoz. The study suggests looking at collectivisation not as consistent and finite postwar reform, but as a complex process that lasted considerably longer, quite unlike what was claimed by the Soviet regime, which declared that collectivisation had been achieved in Lithuania by 1951.

Nikolay Antsiferov. ‘That’s our life in letters’: Letters to family and friends (1900s — 1950s)

The collection prepared by IMLI RAN contains letters of the eminent specialist in local history N. Antsiferov and focuses on the biography of this St. Petersburg Imperial University alumnus, who, despite many arrests by the Soviet regime on trumped-up charges, incarceration in prisons and guarded camps and exile, preserved his inner freedom and, therefore, his scholarly potential. The book details the political context that brought about the outrageous persecution of this highly skilled and staunchly apolitical scholar aswell as the abrupt clearance of charges. Also included is a summary of his scholarly output in literary history, local history and cultural studies. The book lists the scholar’s acquaintances and correspondents, e. g., M. Bakhtin, V. Vernadsky, M. Lozinsky, A. Meyer, K. Chukovsky, B. Eichenbaum, and many other members of the intellectual elite. The book is celebrated as a landmark scholarly publication; highly praised are the text preparation efforts and explanatory notes.

THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY -THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE COLONIES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE XX CENTURY(on the example of the Central Asian region )

The article provides information on the organization of Russian-system schools by the Russian Empire, the implementation of several works aimed at ensuring the literacy of spiritual and educational, religious and secular knowledge of the local population, women and girls, as well as the creation of an educational system aimed at russifying the local population and broadening Russian culture in the region. From the very beginning of the Soviet regime, it was shown that the main attention was paid to the issue of education of Muslim women and girls.Index Terms:primary education, otinoi, Russian-native schools, gymnasium, Muslim society, S. Yenikeeva, democracy, enlightenment, new methodological schools

Escapes from Special Settlements: Goals, Means, and Sanctions

This paper explores escapes from special settlements by analysing three key escape components: goals, means, and sanctions. Based on this, the author identifies the correlation between the factual circumstances of the escape and the subsequent punishment. As a result, the paper expands on the understanding of policies pursued by the Soviet regime in relation to special settlers. More particularly, it offers a new analysis of the decree of 26 November 1948, according to which escape from such settlements was to be punished with twenty years of penal servitude. Further, the paper explains in detail why special settlers violated the rules established by the regime, providing an answer to the question about whether this behavior was a form of protest or a means to potentially improve their situation in exile. In addition, particular attention is paid to analysing the methods that special settlers used to make their escapes. The paper explores where escapees procured money and false documents, what type of transport they preferred, and who hid them. The information presented is drawn from Soviet documentation, party, and law enforcement agencies of various levels (district – region – centre). These sources make it possible to analyse the positions of various actors on fighting escapes, as well as to characterise the confrontation not only as being one between the centre and the regions, but also as being a confrontation between different power and economic structures. The chronological framework covers the post-war period; the territory examined encompasses three regions of western Siberia, i. e., Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, and Tomsk. The article is divided into three parts, each of which considers a separate type of escape: unauthorised absences, unauthorised relocations, and intentional escapes. These categorisations are determined in accordance with the final goals that the special settlers wanted to achieve.

Typical Bourgeois Intellectuals and Great Friends of the Soviet Union: Latin American Writers in the USSR during the Khrushchev Thaw

The author studies the Latin American writers’ visits to the USSR from 1954 till beginning of 1960s realized via the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers. After Stalin’s death, the activity of all departments of the Commission expanded significantly; the lists of those invited from abroad now included writers who were absolutely loyal to the USSR as well as new and yet unknown names. As a result, the staff of the Foreign Commission had to face an unprecedented pluralism. Based on the Commission’s Spanish and Portuguese translators’ reports, stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the study analyses the criteria based on which the stay of a guest was perceived as favorable or undesirable for continuing cooperation in order to improve the image of the USSR in foreign literary circles. The study also analyses somewhat of a loyalty marker, reflecting the guests’ perception of the results of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the state of Soviet-Chinese relations as sensitive topics important for the political self-determination of communist writers. The study of these new sources allows us to conclude that when choosing new foreign partners, the Foreign Commission often relied on the advice of its’ faithful friends, and the protégés of the latter did not always withstand the test of compatibility with the Soviet regime. At the same time, there was no specific criteria for the new friends’ selection. The translators, who were the first to report on the visit, were invited from outside, sometimes just for one particular job; they did not receive clear instructions from the Commission and were guided by their own ideas about the importance of the writer in their care and the expediency of cooperation with him. Later their opinion could not be taken into account; presumably, it was the journalistic and novelistic production of the invited writers published as a result of the visit to the USSR that was of greater importance to decide whether they were worth further attention. The study reviews Soviet Writers’ Union cooperation with P. Neruda, F. González-Urízar, N. Parra, V. Teitelboim, A. Cassigoli, F. Coloane (Chile), J. Amado, M. Rebelo, E. de Moraes, G. Figueiredo, H. Silveira (Brazil), I. Abirad, J.C. Pedemonte, M. Rosencof (Uruguay), N. Guillen, C. Leante, O. Hurtado, Samuel Feijoo (Cuba), E. Barrios Villa (Bolivia), C.A. Leon (Venezuela).

‘Comrade Master’, or Cramp – 17. The World Revolution, ‘russian boys’ and Lenin as a literary mask

The article analyzes the influence of Lenin’s literary mask on the establishment of the Soviet regime. It is shown that Marxism as a bulwark of institutional memory of Soviet modernization, allows to interpret the Soviet heritage in the context of Ukrainian transition to democracy.