Soviet Concept Research Articles

The microraion as a framework for organising life in Romania. Plans and implementations

The present paper attempts to provide an insight into the microrayon, a form of socialist urban planning perfected in the 1960s, by presenting the development of the ideological and spatial model of the microrayon and its adaptations in Romania through two architecturally and urbanistically significant residential districts of different scales. The microrayon is considered one of the most effective propaganda machines of socialist modernity in the Eastern Bloc countries, amidst an offensive of communist values freed from the oppressive connotations of Stalinist socialist realism. The ideological apparatus, condensed into the broader concept of socialist microrayon, had three main components. The first concerned the specific urban configuration of the microrayon, which, although inspired by Clarence Perry’s neighbourhood unit, was presented as an original Soviet concept, a microcosmos of the ideal socialist community. Therefore, the discourse around the microrayon was all about collective life and the rejection of independent existence in favour of belonging to a complex system. The second mechanism of the ideological impregnation of housing operated at the level of the built space, by reducing housing types to a few standardised models of prefabricated blocks of flats, which, apart from being the result of economics taken to the extreme, were the embodiment of egalitarian politics and communism’s excessive desire for uniformity. At the third level of the intimate family space, the emphasis was on the new, the standardised and the minimal, both in regard of interior space and family life. Another important objective of the study is to shed light on the contradictory relationship between plans and realisations that characterised the communist era housing projects in Romania.

Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

The principles of organizing the material-technical support of the electric machine-building complex of the UKSSR in 1920-1925

In this article re-create the historical picture of the process of forming the material and technical component of Ukrainian electric machine engineering during 1920-1925. Clarified that it took place in the context of policies of concentration of production in the public sector of the economy and centralization of the republican industry management at the Union level, and that fully corresponded to the concept of the USSR government regarding the conduct of electrification of the country. During the study period, the order of material and technical support of electric machine-building became the main and most effective way to achieve the objectives set by these policies in the Ukrainian segment of the Union industry. Electrification of production processes became one of the cornerstones of the Soviet government's industrialization of industry, the beginning of which he laid in the second half of the 1920s. This moment has determined the leading role of electrical engineering in the period of total transition to mechanization of production processes, as the development of this industry directly affected the composition of their characters and, accordingly, the consumption of electricity through the production of its conversion into mechanical and vice versa. Meanwhile, as early as the early 1920s, the domestic sphere of electric machine production was in a deep crisis, connected primarily with the consequences of the civil war (1918–1921). However, given the scale of the tasks set before it within the Soviet concept of electrification of the country in the middle of the same decade, its scientific and technological potential at this time was strong enough to at least achieve such tasks.However with it, the principles of filling the material-technical component of the scientific-technical potential of the electric machine-building complex, formed at that time, complicated this component future optimization, since they were based on the preventive increase in the absolute value of production capacities, without taking into account both the dynamics of the expansion of the range of electric machines and the development of means and technologies for their production.

ПАМ'ЯТНІ ЗНАКИ ЖЕРТВАМ ГОЛОДУ 1932–1933-х РОКІВ У РОСІЇ: РЕГІОНАЛЬНИЙ, ХРОНОЛОГІЧНИЙ ТА ІДЕОЛОГІЧНИЙ ВИМІРИ ПОЛІТИКИ ПАМ'ЯТІ

The article analyzes official politics of memory of the Russian Federation regarding commemoration of famine victims from the beginning of 1930s. The research allows to get data of the Russian case that later can be compared with the data of the Ukrainian case. Analysis of politics of memory of the Russian state toward victims of the artificial famine has proven that Kuban’ is an unconditional leader among the Russian regions where memory about those events is still alive: about 20 of monuments have been revealed. To the contrary, only one village outside Kuban’ (i.e. other grain-producing regions of the Russian soviet republic) has one monument and one cross on a local cemetery. Such amount of memorial sites devoted to the victims of 1932-1933 famine contradicts thesis of the Russian historian V. Kondrashyn. He states that every Russian village still keeps memory about the given above famine. Therefore, the author tried to figure out what official politics of memory is behind creation of memorial space devoted to famine victims. Official politics of memory of the Russian state has put narrative on “the Great Victory” in the WWII in the foundation of contemporary state- and nation-building. The research has proven that this politics of memory influences articulation and reflections by the historians of 1930s events directly. On the other hand, narrative found in the informational space of the RF, indicates inability to break off with the soviet concept on history. This concept obviously has left no space for artificial famine organized by the top authorities. Finally, the research has proven that the researchers of local Kuban’ history realize marginal status in the RF of both famine victims commemoration and historical studies on the topic, as well as marginal and poor presence of the famine of 1932-1933 in collective memory of Russians. Still, despite this being the case, Russian historians reproach their Ukrainian colleagues for politicization of the topic and an attempt to commemorate their “dead” out of victims of the “common tragedy” of both “brotherhood” nations.

МНОГОЯЗЫЧИЕ ПОСТСОВЕТСКОЙ МИГРАЦИИ: ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ АСПЕКТ

The article uses the results of a project aimed at studying the relationship between language and ethnic identity of non-Russian immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Western Europe. It is concluded that, on the one hand, the first-generation migrants «export» patterns of using L1 (ethnic language) and L2 (Russian language) formed in their native country. On the other hand, in a foreign cultural environment there is a transformation of existing and appearance of new functions and values of L1 and L2. Regarding L2 the author draws two main theoretical conclusions: 1) in a migration situation, the Soviet concept of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication receives its «second life», 2) L2 fulfills the functions of the inner language — the language used for «internal» purposes, that is, for communication with people from the post-Soviet space sharing a common past and socialization experience

Предпосылки становления философии социальной безопасности в дореволюционной России и советском союзе

The article is devoted to the analysis of the formation of the social security philosophy on the territory of the Russian state, where, as the authors show, the ideas about the need to ensure a decent level of existence for the individual and society have already been known since the beginning of the XIX century. The aim of the article is to trace how the understanding of security has changed in Russian science. The article uses the method of phenomenological and comparative analysis, with the help of which the study of domestic security concepts was carried out. The first task posed by the authors is to consider the discussion about safe development among pre-revolutionary authors, the result of which was the formation of an idea about the special role of the Russian state in ensuring the security of society. The second task is to consider the Soviet concept of security, centered round the concept of a state system for providing armed protection against external enemies. As the authors have shown, this concept was characterized by the refusal to take into account the influence of social, economic and spiritual factors of security. The third task was to analyze the post-Soviet concept of security, within which the relationship between society and the state was rethought, which ceased to interfere indefinitely in the social and personal spheres of life and rejected a simplified understanding of the problem of ensuring security, which for a long time was considered only as counteraction to external threats

Hybride Kriegsführung und die Hinwendung zur Resilienz: Zurück zum Kalten Krieg?

The concept of “hybrid warfare” has become increasingly en vogue in international security debates and has also garnered attention from the perspective of international law. It is frequently understood to signify a combination of “traditional” forms of warfare with atypical elements like disinformation campaigns, sowing doubts about attribution and the spreading of “fake news”. Yet, doubts remain as to whether it is a coherent concept and whether it can offer new insights into current forms of warfare. This contribution critically analyses the notion of hybrid warfare and the prominent role in policy documents of international organisations like NATO or the EU. The contribution also assesses the possible ramifications of hybrid warfare for the doctrinal operation of international law. Most attempts to deal with this phenomenon so far have ended up either breaking down hybrid warfare into its component parts or making wide-ranging policy suggestions to develop a “robust and resilient international law”. This latter call is analysed critically in this contribution, especially in the light of parallel Cold War histories where Western states tried to defend the free flow of information vis-a-vis a Soviet conception of non-intervention.

Review

Review

Геополитические интересы СССР, проблема советизации Восточной Европы и советско-польские отношения (40-е годы ХХ в.)

The article analyzes, in the geopolitical context, the Soviet policy towards Poland during the Second World War and the first post-war years. The struggle of Soviet diplomacy for the future mutual security of the USSR and Poland is presented as well as differing perceptions of interests, geopolitical role, allies and borders of the two countries and unequal possibilities of their implementation. The author demonstrates that the Soviet concept of the time and the USSR role as guarantor of Poland’s security and borders did not assume the sovietization of its social order, but the elimination of anti-Soviet forces and power sharing between communists and democrats.

Детское чтение сквозь призму педагогики первой четверти ХХ века (об истоках раннесоветской концепции читателя)

Детское чтение сквозь призму педагогики первой четверти ХХ века (об истоках раннесоветской концепции читателя)

From Soviet State Enterprises to Russian Unitary Enterprises

In Russian law, the State enterprise is probably one of the most noteworthy examples of the continuity of legal development, showing just how much Soviet concepts still influence modern Russian law. It is well known that the means of production could not belong to private persons under Soviet law (apart from some minor exceptions). Consequently, State enterprises built the foundation of the Soviet economy. However, the enterprises needed a legal foundation for their entrepreneurial activity. Not being the owners of the assets, they had an operative management over them. This legal construction, surprisingly, survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberalization of the property regime. In the course of perestroika reform, the right of operative management was redesigned; additionally, a further right, one establishing a full economic jurisdiction, was created. These relicts of Soviet legal thinking later kept their position as a part of the modern Russian law of property. In the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the right of operative management and the right of economic jurisdiction are explicitly stated as rights in rem (Art. 216 CC). Mostly importantly, they allow the State to create the so-called unitary enterprises and institutions which conduct economic activity but do not own their assets. These assets remain State property; however, the unitary enterprises can possess and use the assets on the grounds of the right of operative management or the right of economic jurisdiction. The paper addresses the continuity in legal developments in regard of the mentioned rights and their impact on the notion of property in modern Russia.

Women in noir style: the soviet version

The paper is devoted to a comparative analysis of the popular culture of the Cold War in the United States and in the USSR, namely, to the genres, which were stimulated by the public moods of the Cold War (noir, spy detective, etc.). It is argued that despite the refusal of Soviet critics to use Western terminology, the genres of noir and spy detective existed in the Soviet literature and cinema, but had their own national and cultural content. In particular, the images of “fatal women” and “female adventurers”, who were central in the noir poetics, were not typical in the Soviet popular culture, excluding works devoted to the life abroad (in particular, novels by A. Tolstoy “Emigrants”, “Hyperboloid of engineer Garin”, etc.), however, noir motifs have appeared in the Soviet literature and cinema since the mid-1950s, when the official optimism of the Soviet public culture has been replaced by emotions of disappointment and tragic past (after J. Stalin’s death and denunciation of his personality cult). The novels of the little-studied writers L. Ovalov (“The Copper Button”) and H.-M. Muguev (“Doll of Mrs. Bark”, “The Quiet City”, “Fire Paw”) were analyzed in the context of the biographies of their authors, gender politics of the novels and the Soviet concepts of “freedom” and the opposition of “friend” and “enemy”. It is proved that the images of “adventurers” and style in the spy novels by Ovalov and Muguev reproduce the poetics of “noir” in the Soviet literature, which looked as authentic view in depicting war, emigration, espionage, captivity, conspiracies, and other existential situations. It was argued that the noir motifs in the late Soviet cinema were used in depicting the bipolar and hostile world in the spy genre (“The Secret Agent’s Blunder”, “17 Moments of Spring”), and also in depicting the postwar period of Soviet culture, losses of ideals and destroying a large number of people’ destinies. It was argued that the “Soviet project” was not separated from the cultural mainstream of the 20th century, it experienced the influences of Western popular culture and its values.

On the Bright Path: Female Labor in the Food Industry in 1954-1964 (based on Materials from the Krasnoyarsk Territory)

The relevance of the work is due to the preservation of the problems of the Soviet period in a number of modern industries. The issue of female labor conditions is considered on the example of the food industry of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the Khrushchev decade. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the problem of female labor in industry was considered only from the point of view of the Soviet concept; little attention is paid to it in modern literature. The authors dwell on the characteristics of the difficult conditions of female labor in enterprises of local importance. The author’s inference of the reasons why women not only agreed to work in uncomfortable conditions but also considered their situation to be beneficial is presented. It is shown that work in the food industry, which gives the opportunity of free access to food in the conditions of a shortage of goods was desirable. It is also noted that in this industry high requirements were not demanded on the qualifications of women workers, which suited women who were not educated and burdened by their families. It is emphasized that the “sphere of female labor” is a concept created in the Soviet economy with the aim of involving women in production and symbolizing the state’s concern for the health and well-being of women. It is proved that in reality the sphere of female labor has become a place of segregation and a zone of preservation of primitive forms of management.

РЕЛИГИОЗНЫЕ ИНТЕНЦИИ В РУССКОЙ БАТАЛЬНОЙ ПРОЗЕ

В статье реализована попытка осмыслить развитие религиозных интенций в батальной прозе. К анализу научной проблемы привлечен обширный материал, прослежен долгий путь развития художественного показа батальных событий от древнерусских текстов до литературы о Великой Отечественной войне, рассмотрена ценностная доминанта защиты родной земли, поведение человека в минуту опасности. Утверждается мысль о заметном влиянии религиозной философской мысли на отношение к войне и осознание ее духовного смысла. The paper reviews the main trends of battle prose from Old Russian texts to the literature of the Great Patriotic War and early postwar period. The research focuses on the patriotic values in the context of history and literature and looks into dynamics of religious and philosophical views of Russian writers on war from axiological perspective. This approach accounts for the relevance and novelty of the study. The author explores historical and literary processes changing with time to define traditions and innovations in depicting battle scenes in Russian literature in different historic periods. The analysis is based on works of different genres: battle stories of ancient Russia which first made the link between religious symbols and military themes explicit hagiographic works which feature motives of protection of the warriors by the Mother of God and consider the conflict between the earthly and the heavenly, selfpreservation and duty. The first literary work to try and interpret war and its aftermath religionwise as an eternal conflict between war and humanity was the collection of stories Milestones(1909). Along with it, perspectives on war by E. Trubetskoy, N. Berdyaev, I. Ilyin are also given prominence to. The author addresses N. Berdyaevs ideas of eschatological problems of war and salvation of humanity reviews V. Korolenkos critique of the revolution and the war from the angle of Biblical principles. It is argued that despite persistent efforts aimed to abolish Christian traditions, Soviet literature on war is entwined with religious undertones. Another avenue of research is the language of military discourse (with a particular focus made on new lexemes, Church Slavonicisms, emphatic intonation). New Soviet concepts embracing spiritual features of the Russians as a nation are examined through Stalins public addresses. The message of battle prose is seen in the idea of Soviet people unity in the face of external threat. Its stylistic features are contingent on image of the protagonist seeking and gaining the sense of Homeland through an individual story unfolding against a historic backdrop. The imagery of the prose involves sacral symbols: HomeWorldGenus. The paper also explores a new form of sermon, new patriotic prayer, prayer for salvation, memorial prayers and ethicalreligious prayers.

Between future and eternity: a Soviet conception of heritage

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the specific historical development of heritage’s conceptualisation within Soviet Russia from the October Revolution in 1917 to its 50th anniversary in 1967. More particularly, it intends to elicit a debate on the relation between heritage as a concept and the new understanding of space and time introduced with the October Revolution. It stresses not only the stakes of integrating, assimilating and appropriating the past, but also the ones that reside in the will to build a communist future thanks to a heritage dedicated to last for eternity. The paper thus intends to shed light on the Soviet concept of heritage and examines its peculiarities.

From Bright Clothes to Bright Futures: Discourse on the Colour of Children’s Clothing in the USSR of the 1950s–1980s

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to study the meaning of the colour of children’s clothes as it relates to ideology. The methods of research include a discourse analysis of Soviet advice books, brochures, and thematic articles in fashion magazines of the second half of the twentieth century, as well as a content analysis of a collection of Soviet postcards depicting children provided by the Russian National Library in St Petersburg. Illustrations from Primers (Bukvari) were also used for qualitative analysis. Official recommendations to dress children in light and bright colours are regarded in the paper as utterances on childhood containing ‘programmatic epithets’ which constructed the conceptual field of a Soviet childhood. The paper raises the discussion about Soviet concepts of childhood and defines the place of Soviet children’s fashion in relation to world fashion trends.

Soviet psychiatry and the origins of the sluggish schizophrenia concept, 1912–1936

This article seeks to understand the origins of the Soviet concept of ‘sluggish schizophrenia’, a diagnostic category that was used to imprison political dissidents in the post-WWII era. It focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, a period when Soviet psychiatrists attempted to find ways to diagnose schizophrenia at its earliest stages. The new Soviet state supported these efforts, funding new institutions where clinicians encountered types of patients they had not previously studied. Conceptual disagreements arose about what symptoms could be used to diagnose schizophrenia, and how it could be differentiated from other ‘borderline’ mental disorders such as neurosis and psychopathy. Several research groups used their findings to propose new clinical concepts, including ‘mild schizophrenia’ and sluggish schizophrenia. By the early 1930s Soviet psychiatrists no longer shared a basic consensus about schizophrenia. At the same time, the priorities of the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin ceased to support preventative psychiatry. The result was a 1936 ‘discussion’ at which the concept of mild schizophrenia was criticized and sluggish schizophrenia was held up as a model for how the discipline should develop in the future.

Постать Степана Бандери у пам’яттєвому дискурсі.

The aim of the study is analyse the reflection of the figure of S. Bandera in historical memory. It bases on general scientific and special historical (problemchronological, historical-comparative, historical-biographical) methods. The identity of the conductor of the OUN(b) considered in the background of the definition of «historical memory». It is shown that along with the critical attitude to the personality of the leader of Ukrainian nationalists in Ukraine, it is widely used. At the same time, the geography of places of honouring the figure of S. Bandera is quite uneven, the vast majority of them are located in the western regions of Ukraine. The scientific measurement of memory is investigated. The Soviet concept interpreted Ukrainian nationalism as «the greatest enemy of the Ukrainian people», there was not only the branding of S. Bandera as an undesirable person, but also its oblivion. In the modern scientific environment as a whole there was a generalized image of S. Bandera. Judgments concerning the activities of the Bandera range from thereon to moderate, but most researchers agree about his dedication to the Ukrainian national cause. Ambiguous estimates of the figure of S. Bandera are presented in the memoir literature. Persons from his close circle note patriotism, dedication, organizational talent, good breeding and intelligence. Opponents appeal to the features that characterized S. Bandera as too ambitious, not capable of democratic methods of activity. Given controversy figure of Stepan Bandera is densely overgrown with myths. Political myth about him fit into the concept of «banderita», which is used to represent a potential threat to the immediate neighbours of the manifestations of the distinctive features of the Ukrainian people. It is noted that despite the heated discussions, the figure of S. Bandera firmly entered the historical memory of Ukrainians.

The New Socialist Man in the Plattenbau: The East German Housing Program and the Development of the Socialist Way of Life

This article argues that the importance of housing and the urban environment in East Germany in the second half of its existence grew in tandem with a new vision of socialist society and the means that the state should employ to create it. The East German Housing Program, inaugurated in 1971, made space the primary category in which individual and social transformation was envisioned, replacing the pedagogical processes that had originally stood at its heart. In doing so, architects and urban planners drew on three strands of urban planning that have often been seen in conflict in other contexts: the Soviet concept of the Mikroraion or socialist neighborhood, the modernist housing ensemble of Le Corbusier, and the new urbanism of Jane Jacobs.

The Soviet Approach to the Right of Peoples to Self-determination: Russia’s Farewell to jus publicum europaeum

The aim of this article is to explore the theory and practice of the Soviet position on the right of peoples to self-determination in 1917 and afterwards. It is a misunderstanding to mention Lenin’s (the Bolsheviks’) and Wilson’s concepts of self-determination in one breath, as ‘precursors’ in international law. The Soviet concept of the right of peoples to self-determination was adopted for tactical and propagandistic purposes, and it had little in common with the liberal democratic concept of this right that saw the right of peoples to self-determination as an end in itself. The real contribution of the Russian Bolsheviks to the history of international law has, to some extent, been overlooked. Throughout the 20th century, the West and the ussr had different regional standards and usages of the right of peoples to self-determination, thus presenting a continuous challenge to the idea of the universality of international law.