The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

Оглавление

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION. Theme 1. THE STUDY OF MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY: MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS

Theme 2. RUSSIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ITS SELF-IMAGE, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, AND CONTRADICTIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Theme 3. FESTIVAL OF THE OPPRESSED OR SOCIAL DISEASE? THE NATURE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

Theme 4. EMERGENCY MEASURES AND THE «EXTREME EMERGENCY REGIME» IN THE SOVIET REPUBLIC AND OTHER STATE FORMATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA, 1918‒1920

Theme 5. FROM «WAR COMMUNISM» TO THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: CONTRADICTIONS OF THE NEP

Theme 6. NEP DOWNSIZING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLICY OF EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES INTO A PERMANENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Theme 7. THE 1930S: CRISES, REFORMS, REPRESSIONS

Theme 8. THE HIERARCHY OF THE GREAT TERROR

Theme 9. ILLUSIONS AND AWAKENING OF THE GENERATION OF 1930S

Theme 10. THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941‒1945: MAIN EVENTS AND POPULAR MOOD IN THE UNOCCUPIED SOVIET UNION

Theme 11. THE PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR ERA

Theme 12. THE KHRUSHCHEV’S THAW AND ITS REVERSE SIDE

Theme 13. SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES: FROM REFORMS TO STAGNATION

Theme 14. THE 1980S: THE SPACE OF POWER AND A SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS

Theme 15. AUGUST PUTSCH OF 1991 AND THE TERMIDOR OF YELTSIN

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA. WITH WHAT DOES RUSSIA ENTER THE NEW MILLENNIUM?. Theme 16. THE REALM OF POWER UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN

Theme 17. REFORMS AND THE HIERARCHY OF NATIONAL PROJECTS

Theme 18. LOCATING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD OF 1917 IN RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 19. THE GREAT VICTORY OF 1945 IN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 20. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSIAN UTOPIAS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE AS IMAGINED BY THE STATE AND DESIRED BY THE INTELLIGENTSIA

MAIN EVENTS, DATES AND GLOSSARY

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

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Theme 18.
LOCATING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD OF 1917 IN RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Revolutions are fundamental objects of historical memory. Because memory is essentially a spatial phenomenon, a special thinking must be used to represent its workings. Thus we should approach the study of how society remembers and what it remembers using the following analogy: social memory snatches hidden objects from the darkness of the past; Power can, then, be envisioned as the ability select on which objects in time’s depths light should be focused. This power, habitually, is wielded by the State, which enjoys a monopoly on the ability to diminish or amplify an illuminated zone, regulate the brightness of the «projector,» as well as the light’s direction and intensity. This method of illuminating the past can be termed the memory project; its purpose is to create and legitimate an authority structure in a particular period of time.

Authority, thus, has the power to shape not only the present or the future, but also the past. No direct access to The Past is possible; rather there are only desired perceptions, which can be actively manipulated. In practice, the collectively remembered past it actively and continuously re-sculpted to master and dominate the future. The memory project divides the past into two parts: actualized (that is, using our analogy, «illuminated») and forgotten, either because of purposeful ignorance or subconscious sublimation. As a consequence, the actualized aspects of the past are highly ambiguous. In order to untangle this ambiguity, two further concepts must be introduced: the cultural hero of memory and the memory subject.

The cultural hero of memory is an icon, which represents an individual or a personified collection of individuals who possess certain common attributes. In the memory project, the cultural hero plays a central role in formulating an ideological context because the hero is presented as that creative force which brings the actualized past into being. But, even the most scrupulous, authoritarian memory project must occasionally focus on other forgotten or sublimated actors, thereby allowing these other memory subjects to get between the light and the dominant cultural hero. These marginalized subjects never fit into the dominant script of the memory project. Therefore, the state, exploiting its power to focus light, tries to minimize the role and importance of the sublimated subjects.

The result is an ineluctable confrontation between the cultural hero and memory subjects. In actual reality, this confrontation may have never even existed, but this, in the end; this has little relevance for the memory project. The cultural heroes must legitimate their exclusive status, while the memory subjects fight for their right to historical existence. The state ideology seeks to relegate unwanted historical subjects to an area of anti-memory, which receive as little «light» as possible. This area is a kind of mental prison, designed to deny undesirable historical subjects from invading dominant narratives and from impede the hegemonic perception of a cultural hero’s actions.

Thus, the analysis of interaction between authority structures and memory space furthers and expands the examination of the contemporary political process. The following sections of this essay consider some examples various aspects of the revolutions of 1917 have been forgotten, remembered and rewoven.

In general, central actors wrote little about the revolution while it was taking place; instead they fought for its realization. Only later does the revolution become a subject of discourse, endlessly contextualized and re-contextualized. Gradually these discursive texts turn into «memories» and dates become «anniversaries.»

Strangely, the passing of every tenth anniversary of the October Revolution was supposed to bring ever new insight into the «secret» of the Russian revolutions. The revolution’s «secret» power was connected to a passion for extremes during the overthrow or assumption of power; faith in the ability to overcome any, seemingly, insurmountable obstacle quickly by the force of will; belief in the efficacy of sudden transformations and breakthrough; and the idea that the undesirable past could be rapidly swept away. Thus the first ten-year anniversary of the revolution in 1927 inaugurated the five-year plan. During the next anniversary, in 1937, the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) decided on to remove all obstacles to the development of communism by creating reliable and «new» people with the help of massive repressive operations. The 30th anniversary in 1947 was commemorated by the «Third Program» of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which stipulated building communism in the next 20–30 years. The 40th anniversary was directly associated with the country’s «breakthrough» into outer space. For the 50th anniversary the state attempted to reinvigorate communism with Kosygin’s economic reforms. During the 60th anniversary the party announced the completion of «developed socialism», the basis for a new «breakthrough.» The 70th anniversary, the last one celebrated by the USSR, was attached to the slogan of «acceleration.» Even in 1997, the authorities continued the memory project by promising ever new panaceas and national «rebirth.»

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

The XXth Century Political History of Russia presents lecture materials for academics working with undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers of Russian history.<br /> The chapters are an unusual insight into the Russian past, which makes the readers think, analyze and also reconsider some events of the Russian history. It is an exciting blend of stories of the past and future trends, allowing to make forecasts and predictions.

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