"People are Crying, but I Can’t Stop Laughing": Protest Reaction of the Deportees of Tomsk region to Joseph Stalin’s Death

The research featured special reports from the Tomsk Department of State Security about the “anti-Soviet” protest movement of Tomsk deportees in the first months after Joseph Stalin's death. The analysis revealed how the deportees adapted to the authority demands and imitated their loyalty to the system, even when the regime positions was clearly weakened. The author analyzed the sanctions imposed on the deportees and the behavior of the local punitive officials, who received no instructions from Moscow. Most likely, the “anti-Soviet” behavior was not so much a purposeful protest as an irrational reaction to such an extraordinary event as Joseph Stalin's death. The responsive actions of the Regional Department of State Security did not follow the new course of Soviet policy but rather the behavioral patterns formed during the Stalin era: violators were identified and punished severely and demonstratively.

FORMATION OF THE SOVIET POLICY IN THE FIELD OF PHYSICAL CULTURE, SPORTS AND SPORTS EDUCATION: IDEOLOGICAL GROUNDS

Показано, что в государственной политике физкультура и спорт тесно связаны с производством и трансляцией политических ценностей и идеологических конструктов. В античный период спорт являлся инструментом формирования более узких (связанных с полисом) и более широких (всеэллинистических) социокультурных и политических идентичностей. Гимнастические движения в Германии, Франции, Чехии, Швеции и России стали и средством укрепления национальной идентичности, и методом военной подготовки. В Советском Союзе физвоспитание и спорт были инструментом подготовки военного и промышленного человеческого резерва, а успехи на международной арене были призваны доказать превосходство социалистической системы над капиталистической.

Западное пограничье СССР в 1939–1941 гг. как « буферная зона » (случай Западной Белоруссии)

In 1939–1941, the Soviet policy in the new western borderlands was based on the need to transform quickly the annexed territories into a safe and invulnerable border. Thus, having expanded its territories to the west in 1939–1940, the Soviet government was in no hurry to eliminate the old border outposts. On the contrary, the previously existing Polish-Soviet border was preserved in the form of so-called “barrier zone” (« зона заграждения »), and special permits were still required to cross it. At the same time, the construction of new western borders was proceeding at an accelerated pace, and in parallel with this, a massive “purge” of the population of the new regions was carried out. Thus, in the pre-war years, the annexed territories were assigned the role of a kind of broad “buffer zone” that was supposed to protect the USSR from the west with two border lines—the new German-Soviet border (external) and the preserved former Polish-Soviet border (internal).

Baku instead of Ankara – Turkish Students from Bulgaria in Azerbaijan during 1950s

The paper presents the nonresearched question about the Turks from Bulgaria who studded in Baku in the 1950s. In this period in Bulgaria the Soviet policy for acknowledging of the rights of the national minorities was applied and the communist regime aimed at directing Bulgarian Turks to the Turkic republics of Soviet Union and especially to Azerbaijan. This policy changed at the end of the 1950s. From 1952 to 1960 more than 50 students graduated from Azerbaijan Peda-gogical Institute and Azerbaijan State University. They were prepared to teach in the Turkish schools in Bulgaria (around 1100 at the beginning of 1950s) but when they returned there were not anymore Turkish schools in Bulgaria. The processes in the sphere of the national languages and educational policies in USSR for this period have been researched. The alumni from the universities in Baku have to experience the contradictions between the Soviet policies to national republics and dynamic of the policy of the communist regime in Bulgaria concerning the Turkish population. The research is based on documents from the State Archive of Azerbaijan, documents from the Central State Archive in Sofia and oral testimonies.

The Role And Demographic Situation Of The Southern Regions In The Economy Of Uzbekistan In 1970-1990

This article is an interdisciplinary study that analyzes the historical demographic processes in Uzbekistan and its southern regions. Based on the archival documents first introduced into scientific circulation, the statistics reveal the problems of the demographic situation of the population as a result of the neglect of local conditions and peculiarities in Soviet policy, as well as the peculiarities of the migration process.

BOOK REVIEW: V.S.BATCHENKO POWER AND FAITH: ANTIRELIGIOUS POLICY AND ITS PERCEPTION BY THE POPULATION OF THE WESTERN REGION, 1929-1934 (VLAST' I VERA: ANTIRELIGIOZNAYA POLITIKA I YEYE VOSPRIYATIYE NA-SELENIYEM ZAPADNOY OBLASTI, 1929 - 1934 GG) INSTITUTE OF RUSSIAN HISTORY OF RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SPB.: PETROGLIF, 2019.-- 336 P.

Данная рецензия посвящена монографии В.С. Батченко об истории Советской политики в отношении религиозных организаций в западных регионах СССР в 1929-1934 гг. Исследование основано на широком круге источников, хранящихся как в центральных, так и местных архивных фондах. Автор монографии показывает, как существовавшие практики антицерковной работы приводили к результатам, которые были прямо обратно ожидавшимся: росту религиозности и недовольству советской властью, выливавшемуся иногда в инциденты, вплоть до вспышек насилия. Результативность этой политики автор монографии оценивает крайне низко, она приводила не к исчезновению, а трансформации религии. This review is devoted to the monograph by V.S. Batchenko about the Soviet Policy towards religion in the Western regions of USSR in 1929 - 1934 years. This research is based on a solid base of documents both from central and regional archives. V.S. Batchenko described paradoxical cases when frantic antireligious measures caused the opposite effect. They did not weaken faith, but even strengthened it. Disappointment with the Soviet religious policy sometimes lead even to riots. The results of this policy V.S. Batchenko estimates as very poor. Religion in Soviet Society did not disappear, but just transformed.