The Civil War (1918-1922) in the historical politics of Russian political parties.

Abstract

In the Soviet Union, the history of the Civil War was one of the important parts of the historical "myth", which ceased to exist shortly before the collapse of the country. Although three decades have passed since the collapse of the USSR, there has not been a unified attitude in society towards this conflict. The article presents a study of the collective memory of the Civil War in Russia based on the narratives of political parties. Modern parties, as part of the formation of their historical policy, offered their own vision of the events of the Civil War. The author of the article analyzes the attitude of parties to the parties to the conflict and personalities, highlights the key features of the image of the past formed by them. The main sources were official documents of the parties, election programs, speeches and publications of party leaders, books, materials of official websites. The results of the study are based on the use of general scientific methods and principles of scientific cognition, comparative analysis, and a systematic approach. The main conclusion of the study is the lack of a unified approach among modern political parties in assessing the events of the Civil War. Liberal and conservative-patriotic parties blamed the beginning of the conflict on the "Reds", the Communist Party – on the anti-Bolshevik camp, the rest expressed the opinion that all parties to the conflict were to blame. The parties also assessed the degree of foreign influence differently – communist and patriotic associations believe that the conflict has escalated into a large-scale war due to the intervention of the Entente countries. In modern political discussion, appeals to personalities are rare: parties resort to generalizations "Bolsheviks", "whites" and similar synonyms, the parties to the conflict in party narratives, as a rule, are faceless. From the personalities of the Civil War, they often turned to the figures of V. I. Lenin and A.V. Kolchak, evaluating them depending on their political preferences. The only conclusion common to all political parties was the unacceptability of a repeat of civil conflicts in Russia, in their opinion, the country should develop, avoiding such shocks.