Proletarian Internationalism, "Soviet Patriotism" and the Rise of Russocentric Etatism During the Stalinist 1930s

Abstract

The most characteristic aspect of the newly-forming ideology . . . is the downgrading of eIements within it. This doesn't mean that phraseology has disappeared or is disappearing. Not at all. The majority of all slogans still contain this element, but it no longer carries its previous ideological weight, the element having ceased to play a dynamic role in the new slogans. It is most possible to see these subtle moves in minor but representative examples. At first, one was to speak of the USSR as the of the proletarian dictatorship, and then the of and the of toilers of the whole world. During the socialism in one country construction period, the USSR was referred to officially as the socialist fatherland. Toward the end of the First Five-Year Plan, the more intimate [term] socialist motherland, or soviet motherland appeared, while today [the USSR] is referred to over and over again as simply motherland. According to our contemporaries' perceptions, motherland sounds warmer, more joyful and less official and bureaucratic than socialist motherland.