scholarly journals Insight into Prison Camp Novels by Estonian Writers

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 318
Author(s):  
Anneli Kõvamees
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Prison Camp ◽  
Small Models ◽  
Insight Into

The article focuses on the Estonian novels depicting Soviet prison camps in the 1940s and 1950s. For a long time the Soviet prison camp theme was not publicly discussed in Estonia due to political reasons. Texts dealing with prison camps could appear in print only outside the Soviet Union. The most notable of these are the novels by Arved Viirlaid. The Estonian prison camp novels can be seen as “the literature of testimony”, to use the term by Leona Toker. Dramatic historical events are written down to record the events and to show the inhumane nature of the Soviet society. These records of the dramatic past follow certain patterns and create certain self- and heteroimages that are analysed in the article. The goal is to map themes, motifs and characteristics in such novels, concentrating on various taboos and rules in the prison camp environment. A prison camp is a closed territory within a closed territory; prison camps can be seen as small models of the Soviet society. Prison camp novels provide a detailed view of the environment of the prison camp, its inhabitants and activities. The lives of prisoners whirl around labour and food. The crucial thing is to survive, which often leads to moral decline, e.g. stealing or cheating. However, there are certain lines Estonians do not cross, e.g. cannibalism or homosexual relationships with superiors. Estonians are always depicted as political prisoners (not common criminals) and heterosexuals, while Russians are portrayed mainly as criminals and often also as homosexuals.

Religious Dissent in the USSR in the 1960s

Slavic Review ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-316
Author(s):  
William C. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Unusual Phenomenon ◽  
Western Scholarship ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Insight Into

With some justification, the 1960s may be called the decade of dissent. This is true even with regard to the Soviet Union, where broad sectors of the population have resorted to increasingly vociferous expressions of dissatisfaction with present conditions. If, when the decade began, overt alienation from the system was a relatively unusual phenomenon, the past ten years have given rise to an increasing stream of dissent in the Soviet populace. Among the intelligentsia, almost every rank and profession has been involved in oral, written, and organizational protest. Considerable attention has been devoted to this development by Western scholarship and journalism, and rightly so, for the voices of dissent provide an immediate insight into the tensions and conflicts within the rapidly changing society. One area of dissent, however, has received rather less attention in the West. This paper will attempt to survey the religious portion of the Soviet population, in an endeavor to illustrate the degree to which religious dissatisfaction during the past decade has been consonant with the general current of dissent within Soviet society.

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.

PARTICIPATION OF UZBEK SOLDIERS IN THE LIBERATION OF THE BALTIC STATES

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Ilkhomjon M. Saidov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Soviet Historiography

The article is devoted to the participation of natives of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in the Baltic operation of 1944. The author states that Soviet historiography did not sufficiently address the problem of participation of individual peoples of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, and therefore their feat remained undervalued for a long time. More specifically, according to the author, 40–42% of the working age population of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Such figure was typical only for a limited number of countries participating in the anti-fascist coalition. Analyzing the participation of Soviet Uzbekistan citizens in the battles for the Baltic States, the author shows that the 51st and 71st guards rifle divisions, which included many natives of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, were particularly distinguished. Their heroic deeds were noted by the soviet leadership – a number of Uzbek guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, Uzbekistanis fought as part of partisan detachments – both in the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, the Western regions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Moldova. Many Uzbek partisans were awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” of I and II degrees.

Georgian Historians and the Ideological Confrontation Between East and West

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-164
Author(s):  
George Gotsiridze
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
East And West

The work, on the one hand, highlights the mission of Europe, as an importer of knowledge, which has for centuries been the center of gravity for the whole world, and, on the other hand, the role of the Black Sea Region, as an important part of the Great Silk Road, which had also for a long time been promoting the process of rap-prochement and exchange of cultural values between East and West peoples, until it became the ‘inner lake’ of the Ottoman Empire, and today it reverts the function of rapproching and connecting civilizations. The article shows the importance of the Black Sea countries in maintaining overall European stability and in this context the role of historical science. On the backdrop of the ideological confrontation between Georgian historians being inside and outside the Iron Curtain, which began with the foundation of the Soviet Union, the research sheds light on the merit of the Georgian scholars-in-exile for both popularization of the Georgian culture and science in Eu-rope and for importing advanced (European) scientific knowledge to Georgia. Ex-change of knowledge in science and culture between the Black Sea region and Europe will enrich and complete each other through impact and each of them will have unique, inimitative features.

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 Do History Lessons Ever Pay off? A Diplomat’s Memoir

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodric Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Moscow River

Sir Rodric Braithwaite was educated at Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, from where he went to serve in HM Diplomatic Service, having worked in Jakarta, Moscow, Washington, Warsaw, Rome, and Brussels, where he was a member of the British delegation to the European Community. From 1988 to 1992, Sir Rodric served as HM Ambassador in the Soviet Union during the decisive years of the Perestroika and the first British ambassador in Russia. Subsequently, he was appointed foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister in the second John Major ministry and chaired the UK Joint Intelligence Committee between 1992 and 1993. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1994. As a career diplomat, Sir Rodric gained decades of insight into the troubled relations between Russia and West, having taken part in numerous negotiations on arms control. His affinity with the decision-making circles in both Russia and Britain alongside with the mastery of the Russian language allow him to skillfully dissect the underlying causes of ups-and-downs in Moscow’s relationship with the West, employing the works of both English- and Russian-speaking analysts. Among his recent books are Across the Moscow River (2002), Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War (2006), Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979–1989 (2012), Armageddon and Paranoia: The Nuclear Confrontation (2017). In this essay, Sir Rodric reminisces of the years spent as a diplomat and provides his view on the usefulness and applicability of historical lessons while devising a foreign policy course.

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 upper Paleozoic (Pennsylvanian-Permian) ammonoid Emilites

1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Royal H. Mapes ◽  
Darwin R. Boardman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
North America ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Early Permian ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Upper Paleozoic ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Permian Ammonoid

Four species of Emilites are now known; these are E. incertus (Böse), E. plummeri Ruzhencev, E. brownwoodi n. sp., and E. bennisoni n. sp. Representatives of this genus may occur as early as Middle Pennsylvanian in North America to as late as Early Permian in the Soviet Union. All described taxa are from North America except E. plummeri, which is from the Soviet Union. Because Emilites is extremely rare in upper Paleozoic ammonoid assemblages, generic and species level phylogenetic relationships are poorly understood. Emilites is not considered to be a good generic-level zone indicator due to its relatively long time range and its rarity.

The Soviet Legacy in Thinking about Fascism

2021 ◽  
pp. 28-42
Author(s):  
Marlene Laruelle
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Soviet Legacy ◽  
Second World

This chapter goes back in time to look at the Soviet construction of the Russian term fashizm and some of the ambiguities that the Soviet society cultivated toward the term and its historical personification, Nazi Germany. It recalls that the term fascism (fashizm), in Soviet times, belonged more to an emotional than to an analytical lexicon. The chapter also discusses Russia's history and Russians' memories of the Second World War, called the Great Patriotic War in Russian (Velikaia otechestvennaia voina) and Victory Day (Den´ pobedy). It reviews how the cult of war is intimately linked to the Brezhnev era and provided the context in which commemoration of the Great Patriotic War was institutionalized as a sacred symbol of the Soviet Union, a confirmation of the soundness of the socialist system and the unity of its peoples. The chapter then argues that the very solemnity of Soviet anti-fascism, and its centrality to the country's political identity constitute the fundaments inherited from Soviet times on the basis of which the notion of fascism is operationalized in today's Russia. Ultimately, the chapter further elaborates the three main sources of the Soviet's cryptic fascination with Nazi Germany and source of knowledge about fashizm: the Nazi propaganda, criminal culture, and cinema and culture.

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