Pub Date : 2022-01-28DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10057
Igor Kuziner
In the first half of the 1930s in the Vyatka region about 60 Old Believers-Wanderers, mostly women, committed suicide, no longer wanting to live in a world overrun by the Antichrist. The initiator of the wave of voluntary deaths was the local preacher, Khristofor Ivanovich. It is easy to write off these episodes as an actualization of traditional Old Believers’ religiously-motivated suicides or as a reaction to the excesses of Stalinist religious policies. However, as will be shown in the article, the Vyatka Wanderers were neither persistent escapist radicals nor uncompromising dissidents in their dealings with the Soviet authorities. My hypothesis is that this grim practice became possible not because the Wanderers were consistent underground millenarians, but because, squeezed into the catacombs by Stalin’s social and religious policies, they found themselves unable to maintain this unprecedented (for them) regime of existence.
{"title":"Невыносимость подполья. Коллективное самоубийство староверов-странников в межвоенной Вятке","authors":"Igor Kuziner","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10057","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In the first half of the 1930s in the Vyatka region about 60 Old Believers-Wanderers, mostly women, committed suicide, no longer wanting to live in a world overrun by the Antichrist. The initiator of the wave of voluntary deaths was the local preacher, Khristofor Ivanovich. It is easy to write off these episodes as an actualization of traditional Old Believers’ religiously-motivated suicides or as a reaction to the excesses of Stalinist religious policies. However, as will be shown in the article, the Vyatka Wanderers were neither persistent escapist radicals nor uncompromising dissidents in their dealings with the Soviet authorities. My hypothesis is that this grim practice became possible not because the Wanderers were consistent underground millenarians, but because, squeezed into the catacombs by Stalin’s social and religious policies, they found themselves unable to maintain this unprecedented (for them) regime of existence.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43124955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-24DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10052
E. Kochetkova
This article examines the phenomenon of Soviet industrial and technical creativity (promyshlennoe i tekhnicheskoe tvorchestvo) from the late 1950s to the 1980s. It particularly focuses on the invention and rationalization movement at industrial enterprises through the lens of Soviet industrial policy. It emphasizes creativity as a labor resource and incentive developed into the oversized system and shows its structural elements and encouragements. The paper argues that from the 1950s onwards, the Soviet state placed labor creativity at the center of industrial development and homegrown vision of progress seeing it as a resource for technological competitiveness from Khrushchev’s aim to reach communism to perestroika. The Soviet leadership, however, overemphasized creativity as workers’ ability to come up with new ideas and find rapid technical solutions to industrial problems in addition to their main duties to show the creative nature of socialist labor. As a result, it developed a formalized branched system constituted by numerous institutions and nominal awards which made creativity not only an industrial necessity but to a large extent a performative product.
{"title":"Performing Inventiveness: Industrial and Technical Creativity in the USSR, 1950s–1980s","authors":"E. Kochetkova","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10052","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the phenomenon of Soviet industrial and technical creativity (promyshlennoe i tekhnicheskoe tvorchestvo) from the late 1950s to the 1980s. It particularly focuses on the invention and rationalization movement at industrial enterprises through the lens of Soviet industrial policy. It emphasizes creativity as a labor resource and incentive developed into the oversized system and shows its structural elements and encouragements. The paper argues that from the 1950s onwards, the Soviet state placed labor creativity at the center of industrial development and homegrown vision of progress seeing it as a resource for technological competitiveness from Khrushchev’s aim to reach communism to perestroika. The Soviet leadership, however, overemphasized creativity as workers’ ability to come up with new ideas and find rapid technical solutions to industrial problems in addition to their main duties to show the creative nature of socialist labor. As a result, it developed a formalized branched system constituted by numerous institutions and nominal awards which made creativity not only an industrial necessity but to a large extent a performative product.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45287566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-21DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10055
Maria Starun
This article explores a repertoire of interactions between Alexei Sidortsev, a tenacious Soviet worker defending his rights, and the Soviet legal bureaucracy up to the Supreme Court. Using the Sidortsev case as an example, I plan to demonstrate the judicial logic of interpreting the parties’ various arguments and evidence. This case allows us to describe and analyze the range of rights and legal opportunities available to the Soviet worker under interwar law. I also focus on the rhetorical transformations of Sidortsev’s arguments, changing from ideological to pragmatically bureaucratic. Although Sidortsev was skilled in ideologized Soviet language, it was the material argument that was decisive in courts interpretations of the facts of the case. On this basis, I argue that material truth in the socialist legal consciousness is not determined by the discursive political language of denunciation that we have come to regard as defining in the Soviet system.
{"title":"Поход Алексея Сидорцева против советского суда: свидетельства, аргументы и поиск материальной истины","authors":"Maria Starun","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10055","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article explores a repertoire of interactions between Alexei Sidortsev, a tenacious Soviet worker defending his rights, and the Soviet legal bureaucracy up to the Supreme Court. Using the Sidortsev case as an example, I plan to demonstrate the judicial logic of interpreting the parties’ various arguments and evidence. This case allows us to describe and analyze the range of rights and legal opportunities available to the Soviet worker under interwar law. I also focus on the rhetorical transformations of Sidortsev’s arguments, changing from ideological to pragmatically bureaucratic. Although Sidortsev was skilled in ideologized Soviet language, it was the material argument that was decisive in courts interpretations of the facts of the case. On this basis, I argue that material truth in the socialist legal consciousness is not determined by the discursive political language of denunciation that we have come to regard as defining in the Soviet system.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44330697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-01DOI: 10.24216/997723645330050701_01
Yulia Yurchuk, Andreas Umland
{"title":"Introduction. New Studies on the Record and Remembrance of the OUN(b) during World War II","authors":"Yulia Yurchuk, Andreas Umland","doi":"10.24216/997723645330050701_01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24216/997723645330050701_01","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89259513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-22DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10056
Julie Hessler
{"title":"A Full-Value Ruble: The Promise of Prosperity in the Postwar Soviet Union, written by Kristy Ironside","authors":"Julie Hessler","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10056","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43877892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-20DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10054
S. Sergeev, A. Kuznetsova
Mass protest movements of the early 2010s, particularly the Occupy movement, stimulated the rise of radical left organizations globally. In Southern Europe, radical left parties celebrated their first electoral successes. In Russia, radical left organizations were also influenced by this upsurge of social protest movements and participated in the Bolotnaya protests in 2011–2012 but were marginalized and disintegrated shortly after, resuming their activities only by 2019. This article explores the radical left movements and groups in Russia and offers projections for their future. The Russian radical left is divided into three sub-groups: fundamentalist communists who identify with Stalin and the Soviet Union, libertarian socialists and communists (subdivided into neo-anarchists, autonomists, and neo-Trotskyists), and hybrid organizations (e.g., the Left Front). These organizations face two major constraints unknown to their Western counterparts. First, Russia’s authoritarian regime blocks opportunities for independent, particularly electoral, politics. This reveals itself in targeted repressions against left radicals and anarchists. Second, the dominance of the CPRF blocks any potential of strong left opposition. Unless these restrictions are lifted, radical left organizations in Russia will not be able to overcome their current crisis.
{"title":"Under the Weight of the Soviet Legacy and Political Repressions: The Radical Left in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia","authors":"S. Sergeev, A. Kuznetsova","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10054","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Mass protest movements of the early 2010s, particularly the Occupy movement, stimulated the rise of radical left organizations globally. In Southern Europe, radical left parties celebrated their first electoral successes. In Russia, radical left organizations were also influenced by this upsurge of social protest movements and participated in the Bolotnaya protests in 2011–2012 but were marginalized and disintegrated shortly after, resuming their activities only by 2019. This article explores the radical left movements and groups in Russia and offers projections for their future. The Russian radical left is divided into three sub-groups: fundamentalist communists who identify with Stalin and the Soviet Union, libertarian socialists and communists (subdivided into neo-anarchists, autonomists, and neo-Trotskyists), and hybrid organizations (e.g., the Left Front). These organizations face two major constraints unknown to their Western counterparts. First, Russia’s authoritarian regime blocks opportunities for independent, particularly electoral, politics. This reveals itself in targeted repressions against left radicals and anarchists. Second, the dominance of the CPRF blocks any potential of strong left opposition. Unless these restrictions are lifted, radical left organizations in Russia will not be able to overcome their current crisis.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48994841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-13DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10053
Yacov Livne
This article focuses on the strategies that Moscow chose during the first decade after World War II to overcome the obstacles created by the West to its entrance into the Middle East. The cases of Israel in 1948 and Egypt in 1955 show two different entry strategies used by Moscow and reflect significant changes in Soviet foreign policy that occurred between Stalin and Khrushchev toward developing countries. In 1948 Stalin chose an indirect and often tacit support of Israel, while in 1955 Khrushchev opted for a more direct approach with Egypt. Khrushchev’s confident tactics presented Moscow with new opportunities in the Middle East and the developing nations but also created long term challenges for the Soviet regime. At the same time, Israel and Egypt successfully maneuvered between Moscow and the West to gain maximum benefits for their national security needs by using both camps of the Cold War.
{"title":"Soviet Entrance to the Middle East and Manoeuvring between Superpowers—the Case of Israel and Egypt","authors":"Yacov Livne","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10053","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article focuses on the strategies that Moscow chose during the first decade after World War II to overcome the obstacles created by the West to its entrance into the Middle East. The cases of Israel in 1948 and Egypt in 1955 show two different entry strategies used by Moscow and reflect significant changes in Soviet foreign policy that occurred between Stalin and Khrushchev toward developing countries. In 1948 Stalin chose an indirect and often tacit support of Israel, while in 1955 Khrushchev opted for a more direct approach with Egypt. Khrushchev’s confident tactics presented Moscow with new opportunities in the Middle East and the developing nations but also created long term challenges for the Soviet regime.\u0000At the same time, Israel and Egypt successfully maneuvered between Moscow and the West to gain maximum benefits for their national security needs by using both camps of the Cold War.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48067729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-19DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10049
Maria Fedorova
{"title":"Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life, edited by Anastasia Lakhtikova, Angela Brintlinger and Irina Glushchenko","authors":"Maria Fedorova","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10049","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47335990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-19DOI: 10.30965/18763324-bja10048
Stanisław Boridczenko
The present paper addresses the manner in which local population of the Polesie voivodeship perceived the Soviet invasion of Poland through the prism of encounter with “others”. In particular, this paper focuses on the local understanding of “others” and how this changed due to the invasion. Also, as an important part of its contextualization, I explore the image of the Soviets held by local communities before the war.
{"title":"Strangers: First Encounter with the Soviets through the Eyes of the Population of the Polesie Voivodeship","authors":"Stanisław Boridczenko","doi":"10.30965/18763324-bja10048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-bja10048","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The present paper addresses the manner in which local population of the Polesie voivodeship perceived the Soviet invasion of Poland through the prism of encounter with “others”. In particular, this paper focuses on the local understanding of “others” and how this changed due to the invasion. Also, as an important part of its contextualization, I explore the image of the Soviets held by local communities before the war.","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45439042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lithuania's cultural elite, born from 1970 to 1980","authors":"Vilius Ivanauskas, Monika Kareniauskait","doi":"10.4324/9781003023050-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003023050-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41969,"journal":{"name":"Soviet and Post Soviet Review","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78346832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}