FAMINE OF 1932-1933 IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: CONFLICT OF ORAL HISTORY, COMMEMORATIVE PRACTICES AND OFFICIAL POLITICS OF MEMORY?

Abstract

The article analyzes location of the 1932-1933 famine in contemporary Russia through the prism of oral history on the topic, commemoration practices and official politics of memory of the Russian Federation. The author has checked thesis of the main Russian historian on the famine V. Kondrashyn. He states that memory on the famine is alive in every Russian village that had suffered from starvation. At the same time, he mentions only one Russian village that has 2 memorial sites devoted the famine victims. Supplementing this poor representation of memory on the famine, the author has revealed relatively integral publication of oral history sources on the topic on Kuban only. Oral history related to other Russian regions is tied to V. Kondrashyn almost exclusively. But he used these sources in his monograph only, not publishing them as a separate aggregated source that would allow its usage by other researchers. Official politics of memory also demonstrates marginalization of 1932-1933 famine. The geopolitical interests of the state can explain this. This imply glorification of the soviet past; implementation of the myth about the “Great Victory” in the Second World War (“Great Patriotic War”); fear of comparison of the Soviet regime with the Nazis ones. That is why the only famine allowed to be visible for the Russian citizens is the famine in Leningrad during WWII. Diary of the girl T. Savicheva who died because of starvation is a famous symbol of the Soviet resistance to the Nazis. At the same time, a diary about starving stanytsia Umans’ka in the beginning of the 1930s by I. Polezhajev is known to a narrow circle of historians. Paradoxically, it is Kuban that demonstrates stronger striving to keep memory on the famine and raises this issue through the prism of commemorative practices and poor representation of the famine in both the Russian historiography on the famine and historical memory