scholarly journals Seizing the Means of Domesticity: Mass-Housing Spaces, Objects and Relationships in Soviet Everyday Life

Topophilia ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Steven Shuttle
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Commodity Fetishism ◽  
Mass Housing ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Historical Photographs ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Push And Pull

The Soviet state created mass-housing to reshape the city and everyday life itself. This paper examines the spaces and objects of mass-housing to examine the relationship between residents, the state and objects within Soviet everyday life. Approaching the study of everyday life in the Soviet Union from the early 1920s to the late 1980s via the spaces of mass-housing can offer a tangible approach to a way of life that might otherwise seem strange or uncanny. This paper uses ethnographic analysis by drawing on scholarly sources along with five historical photographs. The mass housing spaces of the kommunalka and later khrushchyovka served as places of push and pull. The state attempted to expand the public realm while residents simultaneously tried to create privacy and individuality. Within the interior, the Red Corner and the commode were embodiments of contradictions between modernization and tradition. Despite the state’s efforts, commodity fetishism lingered at the core of everyday life. Within Soviet everyday life, mass-housing spaces and objects can be useful to illustrate the changing yet stagnant relationship between residents and the state.

scholarly journals HISTORICAL MEMORY AND PATRIOTISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3/2) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
G. S. SHIROKALOVA
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The State ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government

The article investigates the reasons for rejection of patriotism during  the preparation and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among  them we distinguish the material and other possibilities of so-called  “offshore aristocracy” for the management of public opinion in order  to maintain their status through the destruction of sacred  relationship to the history and the state, which was inherent to the  Soviet mentality. The loss of spiritual base could lead to the  destruction of the Russian Federation according to the scenario of  the Soviet Union, that’s why the government - unable to find a new  national idea – had to appeal to the people’s exploit during the Great Patriotic War as a manifestation of the highest level of patriotism.  Since the beginning of the 2000`s, patriotic education becomes the  direction of public policy. Its effectiveness can be measured through  the empirically observable indicators of attitude to historical events  and modernity. The author believes that the historical memory is a  necessary, but insufficient condition for the patriotism formation. Patriotism of everyday life is the feature that brings social  stability to the state. The article presents the data of  sociological research of the youth’s attitudes to the Great Patriotic  War, which was conducted in Nizhniy Novgorod in 2015. The author  comes to the conclusion that as a result of wide-ranging preparation  to 70th anniversary of the Victory, the historical memory was  actualized. However, the question remains how long it will be  possible to maintain the historical identity in the face of increasing social and economic crisis.

Russian Protectionism: Problems of Institutional Heritage

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Times ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.

Condition of the Armenian Apostolic Church at the Time of Coming to Authority N. S. Khrushchev

2020 ◽  
pp. 245-265
Author(s):  
Арсен Артурович Григорян
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
National Archive ◽  
The State ◽  
State Archive ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Apostolic Church

Цель данной статьи - описать условия, в которых Армянская Апостольская Церковь вступила в эпоху правления Н. С. Хрущёва, начавшуюся в 1953 г. По содержанию статью можно поделить на две части: в первой даются сведения о количестве приходов на территории Советского Союза и за его пределами, а также о составе армянского духовенства в СССР; во второй излагаются проблемы, существовавшие внутри Армянской Церкви, и рассматриваются их причины. Методы исследования - описание и анализ. Ценность исследования заключается в использовании ранее неопубликованных документов Государственного архива Российской Федерации и Национального архива Армении. По итогам изучения фактического материала выделяются основные проблемы Армянской Апостольской Церкви на 1953 г.: финансовый дефицит, конфликт армянских католикосатов и стремление враждующих СССР и США использовать церковь в своих политических целях. The purpose of this article is to describe the conditions in which the Armenian Apostolic Church entered the epoch of the reign of N. S. Khrushchev, which began in 1953. The article can be divided into two parts: first one gives information about the number of parishes in the territory of the Soviet Union and beyond, and about the structure of the Armenian clergy in the USSR; the second one sets out the problems that existed in the Armenian Church and discusses their causes. Research methods - description and analysis. The value of the study lies in the use of previously unpublished documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the National Archive of Armenia. Based on the results of studying the materials, the main problems of the Armenian Apostolic Church in 1953 are: financial deficit, the conflict of Armenian Catholicosates and the eagerness of USSR and the USA, that feuded with each other, to use the Сhurch for their political purposes.

Why pioneer camps survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 161189442110186
Author(s):  
Anna Kozlova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Children’S Centres ◽  
Educational Field

The article analyses the survival of the children’s centres, Artek and Orlyonok, during the post-socialist transformation. It is based on 50 interviews with employees who worked there starting in the late-Soviet era. Artek and Orlyonok were exemplary children’s camps, subordinated to the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Since the early 1960s, they have functioned as schools for distinguished teenagers who were considered ‘good examples’ for other children. In this article, I have made an ethnographic analysis of Artek and Orlyonok employees’ late-Soviet experiences. This analysis shows how the agency of Soviet counsellors and camp directors became a creative interpretation of the governmental order to raise the children as active Soviet citizens. Camp educators transformed it in line with the idea to base their agency on ‘common human values’, which was spread in the Soviet educational field in the post-Stalin era. As a result, the Soviet teaching experiences gained in these education centres were heterogeneous. When a child-centred paradigm was later introduced to the post-Soviet educational system, the camps adopted the most applicable practices from their Soviet experiences.

Socio-political problems of residents of Вishkek residential areas

2021 ◽  
pp. 346-356
Author(s):  
Rita Bobuevna Salmorbekova ◽  
Dilshat Karimova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Expert Survey ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Rational Distribution ◽  
Internal Migrants ◽  
The City

The article examines the problems of the population of the residential areas of the city of Bishkek based on the sociological study. An expert survey carried out in four districts of Bishkek is presented. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 50 new residential areas appeared in the city. Naturally, new residential areas do not have sufficient infrastructure for the population to this day. The current situation with internal migrants in Kyrgyzstan violates the regional demographic balance and the rational distribution of the population across the country. The population is moving actively at the interdistrict and interregional levels. As a result, the main influx of internal migrants moves to Bishkek and Chui Region. The problem of researching the state of the new residential areas in Bishkek is relevant for modern Kyrgyzstan. However, the official statistical base does not cover all citizens living in new buildings, since most residents do not have a residence registration in the area. 75–80 % of the population does not have education and health services. In many residential areas, social facilities, roads, and communications have not been built yet, and the infrastructure as a whole is not developed. Ignoring the issue on the part of the state can lead to a social explosion, expressed by protest actions, exacerbation of social and interregional conflicts among residents of the given area. Based on this, it was necessary to conduct an expert survey among the representatives of the municipal territorial authorities of each district. The main problems of residents of the new residential areas were studied as much as possible.

Emancipation and Domesticity: Decoding Personal Manuscript Cookbooks from the Soviet Union

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Anastasia Lakhtikova
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Ideology ◽  
The Cost

A product of their time and of the internalized Soviet ideology that to a great extent shaped women's gendered self-fashioning as women and mothers, Soviet manuscript cookbooks became popular among Soviet women in the late 1960s. Based on the semiotic reading of two personal manuscript cookbooks in the author's family, this article explores what these cookbooks, in combination with the author's family history, tell about how Soviet women used and reshaped the gender roles available to them in late Soviet everyday life. The author also asks questions about the cost of emancipation in a society that could not truly support such progress socially or economically.

Гocкaпитaлизм, Coциaльныe Клaccы, Культуpный Лaндшaфт Coвeтcкoй Дepeвни Cтaлинcкoгo и Пocлecтaлинcкoгo Bpeмeни

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-337 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Specific System ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Agrarian Society ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1960S

This article analyzes socio-economic and cultural transformations in the Soviet village from the end of the 1920s until the 1980s. The authors identify the agrarian system of that time as state capitalism and reveal that during the 1950s and 1960s, capital that played a leading role in Soviet agriculture. The authors argue that the emergence of state capitalism was due to the interaction of the state, collective farms, and peasant holdings. The preservation of traditional peasant holdings allowed the state to build a specific system of non-economic exploitation, the core of which existed until the beginning of the 1960s. The authors connect the formation of agrarian capitalism with the creation of new rural classes. The authors conclude that from the 1920s to the 1980s, a combination of economic, political and socio-cultural factors led to the transformation of the agrarian society in the Soviet Union into the state capitalism.

scholarly journals Activities of Non-Governmental Organisations Aimed at Conflict Settlement in Post-Soviet States

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Nikitin ◽  
Irina Bolgova ◽  
Yulia Nikitina
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
International Environment ◽  
International Projects ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Organisations ◽  
Set Up

This article analyses the peace-making activities of Soviet/Russian nongovernmental public organisations (NGOs) with reference to the Federation for Peace and Conciliation, the successor of the Soviet Peace Committee. NGOs were formed at the initiative of the state and party organs of the Soviet system but were transformed into independent NGOs after the collapse of the USSR with their own active strategy of assistance in conflict resolution. This study is based upon unique archive materials and the personal experience of one of the authors, who used to work for such organisations. The study focuses on the ethnopolitical conflicts which took place between the collapse of the USSR and the mid‑1990s. There is a widespread opinion in academic literature that so-called non-governmental organisations set up by the government do not have their own identity, especially during social crises, and passively follow the government’s political line. However, the study of their activities demonstrates that during the first years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these organisations initiated a significant number of practical and political projects with the participation of high-ranked representatives of the governments, parliaments, and political parties of both post-Soviet and foreign states and international organisations, including the UN, OSCE, NATO, CIS, etc. This, in turn, played a role as a substantial supplement to classical interstate diplomacy and practically promoted the settlement of certain ethnopolitical conflicts. The archive materials analysed prove that in the early post-Soviet period, a certain inversion in the direction of political and ideological impulses took place, and a number of non-governmental organisations that used to transmit the interests of the Communist Party and state organs to the international environment were able to create new international projects and consultations in the form of “track one-and-a-half” diplomacy, i. e. the informal interaction of officials in the capacity of unofficial experts. And in such cases, it was NGOs which shaped the agenda and transmitted public interests to the state structures of Russia and the CIS states, mediating between fighting sides and amongst representatives of various states, practically assisting the settlement of ethnopolitical conflicts.

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