Soviet Ideological Discourse Research Articles

“Prorubono, vytjagono”. The Philosophy of the Voice in Vladimir Sorokin’s The Factory Committee Meeting

The article investigates the poetics of language in Vladimir Sorokin’s The Factory Committee Meeting from a new point of view. This tale, which dates to the author’s early short prose (1979-1984), has been unanimously regarded as one of the many examples of literary soc–art. Accordingly, the deformed words pronounced in the main event of the text – a collective ritual of violence – have been considered as a device to deconstruct official Soviet ideological discourse (novojaz). However, the neologisms pronounced by the characters (prorubono, vytjagono and others) are not linked to novojaz. Rather, they are arcane words with a strong performative character, which is, paradoxically, linked to the fact that they apparently do not mean anything. In my investigation, I consider these neologisms as a device to deconstruct language as such. Following Mladen Dolar’s philosophy of the voice and Giorgio Agamben’s consideration on the role voice and bare life play in human existence, I regard the deformed words in The Factory Committee Meeting as the literary representation of a point of transition from pure voice / sound (phonē) as the expression of bare life (zōḗ) to the articulated language (logos) which socio-political life (bíos) is based on. I call this liminal stage extimacy (Dolar) and ‘zone of indistinguishability’ (Agamben): a movement of exclusion and, at the same time, inclusion of pure voice and bare life in the logos of the socio-political community.

Verbalization of opposition to Soviet ideology in the discourses of I. O. Svitlychnyi and N. O. Svitlychnа

An article is dedicated to subject of anti-totalitarian expressions in the language, which we define as an alternative communicative discourse in conditions of the rule of soviet totalitarian ideology. On Ukrainian territory an alternative discourse was forming in the medium of creative intelligentsia — the members of the national support movement in the second half of the XX century. The specifics of language forms in resistance to totalitarian system, especially in the idiostyle of particular linguistic identity, has not become the subject of research in Ukrainian linguistics yet. Such review is important for understanding the universal system of similar language forms with a description of their mechanisms, means and techniques. The purpose of article is to detection of linguistics forms and means an anti-totalitarian communication in Ukrainian dissident environment, based on Ivan and Nadiia Svitlychni’ epistolary, journalistic, artistic and memoir texts, and making its linguistic description. For this work were used an empirical observation, descriptive and analytical, contextual analysis methods with some elements of biographical analyzing. Factual material analyze gives reason to believe that the communist totalitarian system and the newspeak, as an outfitting of ideological dogmas have triggered the appearance of a language resistance in the environment of Ukrainian dissidents-sixties. Study of the contents of the letters, articles, artistic works and memoirs of Ivan and Nadiia Svitlychni shows the presence of idiostyle features, which we consider as language forms of resistance to the Soviet ideology. There are the parody of the official discourse, introduction of units of the soviet newspeak in the ironic, comic and critical context, deformation of precedent texts of the newspeak — slogans, stable expressions, stamps, cliche, etc., the combination of contrast components for its functional purposes of presentation, application of the Aesopian language and elements of the language game. Lexical units of newspeak were implemented into text for its stylization under totalitarian discourse. This allowed to go around censorship, and at the same time, due to by getting into an unusual context, these units lost a positive connotative color, acquiring the opposite. Deformation of precedent texts caused the destruction of official ideological standards, totalitarian myths, propaganda narratives and exposing true essence of the Soviet system. Further studies perspective lies in the study of language practices other representatives of the Ukrainian resistance movement from the point of view of their opposition to the Soviet ideological discourse. Keywords: Anti-totalitarian language, the Resistance Movement, linguistic forms of resistance, alternative discourse, ironic context, critical context, reception of contrast

Художественная репрезентация мотива странничества в прозе М. Юныса

The article examines mechanisms of representing the pilgrimage motive in M. Yunys’s prose. Choosing pilgrimage as a communicative strategy, M. Yunys consistently rehabilitates the tradition of national identity. His pilgrimage, conventionally considered as escape from the empire, actualizes an alternative tradition of protest within the framework of the Soviet ideological discourse. Implementing the pilgrimage motive, the author reveals the key conception of his creative work - sacrificial love for his people continuing the tradition of the Tatar literature of the beginning of the XX century.

„Apsimetinėjo banditais“: kriminalinių gaujų mimezės 1945–1957 metais Lietuvoje analizė

During the 1940s–1950s, the Supreme Court of the Lithuanian SSR solved 44 criminal cases of “banditry” (Article 59 part 3 of RSFSR Criminal Code of 1926) with some noticeable facts of mimesis: these bandits, during their raids, were trying to create an illusion to their victims that these raids were performed by Lithuanian partisans (freedom fighters) or by some Soviet oficials (militia officers, the “defenders of the People,” or Soviet army personnel). This article focuses on the mimesis of various criminal groups in Soviet Lithuania of the 1940s–1950s. The first issue to solve in this research is the problematic terminology used by the Soviets: the term bandit was oftenly used in Soviet ideological discourse: an attempt to intertwine anti-Soviet partisan operations (“political banditry,” according to Soviet terminology) and the activities of “simple criminals” (burglars, raiders, rapists, murderers – any of such organized groups were referred to as “criminal bandits” by Soviet terms) under a single dubious term – the banditry. An analysis of criminal raids performed by fake partisan (or fake Soviet) bandit groups showed that criminals were more often inclinded to appear as if they were Soviets rather than partisans (21 bandit group used the mimesis of partisans, and 27 bandit groups used the mimesis of Soviets, while there were also 4 bandit groups that used both roles: fake partisans during one raid and fake Soviets during another). This can be explained by the bandits’ avoidance of becoming the targets of partisan revenge or by a large number of various criminals that migrated to Soviet Lithuania from the eastern republics of the Soviet Union. It may also be explained in terms of simpler imitation: for these criminals, it was more difficult to imitate Lithuanian partisans than Soviet militia.The real widespread effect of this phenomenon cannot be easily revealed. As there several few different types of courts (Soviet military courts, the “People’s” courts) that could solve the criminal cases of various criminal bandits, it is not even possible to give a real number of all mimetic bandits that were active in Soviet Lithuania. Also, not every raid case was documented by the Soviet side; not every raid case was even reported to the Soviets. Sometimes, Lithuanian partisans used to catch and punish these criminals themselves – all these circumstances makes the task of stating the real number of bandit groups who used various mimesis techniques an unsolvable one.

Metaforyka związana z pojęciami światła i ciemności w sowieckim ideologicznym subdyskursie o kulturze w latach 1953–1957 na materiale gazety „Prawda”

<p>Metaforyka związana z pojęciami jasności i ciemności należy do najbardziej wyrazistych narzędzi służących wprowadzaniu i podtrzymywaniu manichejskiego podziału na swoich i obcych w wielu dyskursach, w tym również w sowieckim ideologicznym dyskursie o kulturze okresu tzw. odwilży. Analizie poddano około 400 tekstów o tematyce kulturalnej, publikowanych w latach 1953–1957 w gazecie „Prawda”, które charakteryzują się m.in. konfrontacyjnym charakterem związanym z przesileniem politycznym oraz kulturalnym w epoce poststalinowskiej. Artykuł jest próbą analizy funkcjonowania metaforyki związanej z pojęciami światła i ciemności w sowieckiej propagandzie kulturalnej tego okresu. Okazuje się, że metaforyka ta pełniła ważną rolę w próbach odgórnego sterowania życiem kulturalnym kraju oraz że sposoby jej zastosowania bynajmniej nie odbiegają od najdawniejszych wzorców znanych piśmiennictwu ruskiemu. W badanym dyskursie metafora światła i ciemności pozwalała na wyrażenie istotnych kategorii, na których promocji zależało jego autorom centralizm zarządzania kulturą, przewodnia rola określonych jednostek i środowisk kulturalnych w kreowaniu kultury, wyższość kultury swoich nad kulturą obcych itd. Poprzez odwołanie się do pojęć archetypowych nadawca zyskiwał gwarancję skuteczności tego typu oddziaływania.</p>

The canon and the mushroom

This essay focuses on a paradoxical transformation that happened within Soviet ideological discourse at the very end of perestroika, around 1990–91. The Party’s attempts to revitalize Soviet ideology by returning to the original word of Lenin unexpectedly produced the opposite result. The unquestionable external Truth from which Soviet ideological discourse drew its legitimacy—and that had always been identical with Lenin’s word—suddenly could no longer be known. This shift launched a rapid unraveling of the Soviet communist project. At the center of this unexpected transformation was the search for the true Lenin—a kind of Lenin that Soviet party theorists, bureaucrats, historians, and scientists hoped was still hidden in the midst of his unpublished texts and unknown facts of his biology, life, and death.

Soviet “Political Unconscious” in Dmitrii A. Prigov’s Poetry of the 1970s–1980s

The article discusses early political lyrics by Dmitrii A. Prigov, the most famous literary representative of Moscow Conceptualism. Prigov’s mock “reenactments” of Soviet ideological discourse are analyzed through the prism of Fredric Jameson’s concept of political unconscious. Prigov’s cycles such as Istoricheskie i geroicheskie pesni (Historical and Heroic Songs, 1974), Kul’turnye pesni (Cultural Songs, 1974), as well as his 1970s–1980s poems about the Militsaner, the center of a quasi-mythological representation of Soviet symbolic landscape, reveal, in resonance with Jameson’s theory, (1) the text’s functioning as a symbolic act; (2) the collision in its discursive field of different ideologemes; and (3) the shaping of the new, countercultural, ideology of form.

"Мы ищем то, чего не теряли": советские "дикари" в поисках места под солнцем

The article analyzes the "wild tourism" in the post-1950s' Soviet Union as a cultural, lifestyle, and economic phenomenon. It scrutinizes the social, economic, and psychological reasons for the spread of "wild" vacations at Soviet resorts. Individual accounts and official documents are analyzed together with popular Soviet films such as 3+2, Be My Husband , and Sportlotto-82 . The author studies infrastructural policies in the Crimea that emerged in response to the growing tourist and vacation boom, on the one hand, and values, aspirations, and strategies of accommodation and communication of different groups of "wild" travelers to popular Soviet resorts, on the other. The article also deals with the official Soviet ideological discourse of care and control of the population, and offers information on different official strategies directed at decreasing the number of uncontrolled "wild tourists." The metaphor of nomadism provides a general framework for discussing the multifaceted phenomenon of Soviet "wild tourism."

Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960–1985 (review)

Rock and Roll in Rocket City: West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960-1985. By Sergei I. Zhuk. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. [vii, 440 p. ISBN 9780801895500. $65.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Historian Sergei Zhuk's often fascinating, thoroughly researched study of Soviet city of Dniepropetrovsk makes a valuable contribution to study of late Soviet society and culture. He opposes what he rightly identifies as dominant Moscow and Leningrad bias of most scholars by examining an intriguing, and in many respects sui generis, provincial Soviet city. Located in eastern Ukraine, Dniepropetrovsk represented the most important part of Soviet military-industrial complex (p. 18), as missiles designed and manufactured at its Yuzhmash factory were used for both space exploration (Sputniks) and military purposes (nuclear weapons). Unlike Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, or other major Soviet cities, in 1959 it became closed, meaning it was off-limits to foreigners, including visitors from other socialist countries. Yuzhmash even had an official cover: manufacturing agricultural tractors and kitchen equipment (p. 21). Its citizenry operated under unusually comprehensive oversight and in many respects was more beholden to Moscow than to local Ukrainian governance. Yet, as Zhuk discusses in detail, Western influences- literature, film, and popular music- streamed in nonetheless through a variety of sources, among them foreign radio stations and a thriving black market linking Dniepro petrovsk with other nearby open cities, chief among them Western (and Westernized) Ukrainian city of Lviv. These cultural influences and their ramifications for national identity, religious practice, political beliefs, and changing tastes form Zhuk's central subject. The main goal of this book, he writes, to show how an obsession with cultural products from West revealed most important trend in closed Soviet society-the Westernization of Soviet popular culture and Soviet ideological discourse not only in capital cities but also in provinces (p. 9). He later elaborates upon book's main themes as the construction of local idea of West through consumption of Western cultural products, and inclusion of this ideal in identity formation of Dniepropetrovsk's (p. 16). In arguing his thesis, Zhuk addresses a range of cultural objects wider than his title suggests: popular music receives most constant attention, but films and literature, including foreign fiction as well as Ukrainian nationalist writing, also receive focused attention. Beyond specialists in musicology and ethnomusicology book will be of interest primarily to cultural historians and social scientists of former USSR and its successor states, although scholars of global cold war culture will also benefit from comparative possibilities Zhuk's case study affords. Zhuk examines entire late Soviet period: his three larger sections move decade by decade from Khrushchev Thaw of late 1950s and early 1960s (part 1: Beating 1960s) through Brezhnev's Stag - nation in late 1960s and 1970s (part 2: Hard-Rocking 1970s) to beginning of Perestroika in 1985 (part 3: Disco Era). Each section is subdivided into several relatively compact chapters, each of which focuses on a single medium (literature, film, popular music) and/or issue (nationalism, religion, tourism, human rights). examples in these chapters are selected thoughtfully, and although often very meticulous and sometimes filled with dense statistics, discussion never really becomes bogged down. Zhuk's richly textured account reveals not only increasing Westernization and Russification of Dniepropetrovsk's youth culture but also near constant tensions between center and periphery-between local, republic, and all-Union factions- over goings-on in city. …

The Shattered Horizon How Ideology Mattered to Soviet Politics

This article argues that ideology was of key-importance to the Soviet system. The rules which governed Soviet ideological discourse did not only hold for the producers of ideology but also aimed at ‘filtering’ public communication. The respect people showed for an ideologically ‘filtered’ discourse counted as a sign of loyalty. In this way ideology constituted a central pillar of power. The article presents the results of an analysis of political texts dating from the Gorbachev era. It concludes that the Gorbachev reforms eroded the ‘communication filter’ because they changed the rules on which ideological discourse and thus power rested.

Neil Robinson. Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System: A Critical Historv of Soviet Ideological Discourse. Aldershot, Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 1995. x, 227 pp. Distributed in the USA by Ashgate Publishing Co., Brookfield, VT.

Neil Robinson. Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System: A Critical Historv of Soviet Ideological Discourse. Aldershot, Hants, England: Edward Elgar, 1995. x, 227 pp. Distributed in the USA by Ashgate Publishing Co., Brookfield, VT.

Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System: A Critical History of Soviet Ideological Discourse

Contents: Preface 1. Bringing Ideology Back In: The Party and the Soviet Model of Politics 2. The Origins of Soviet Ideology and the Power of the Party 3. Ideology after Stalin: Khrushcev, Breshnev and the Revival of Communist Construction and the Resurrection of Party Power 4. Breaking the Ice: From Uskorenie to Perestroika. Gorbachevism, 1985-1987 5. The Second Phase of Perestroika: Socialist pluralism of opinions, the Socialist law-based state and socialist choice and the Party 6. The End of the Soviet Model of Politics: The Failure of the Party and the Collapse of Party Hegemony 7. Conclusion: Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System Bibliography Index

The final word: The draft party programme of July/August 1991

the twin forces of ideological and political pluralism. In political terms, both the content of the programme, and the drafting process itself, are evidence of the growing crisis within the CPSU in the summer of 1991. Gorbachev, faced with growing opposition from the conservatives over the imminent signing of the new Union Treaty, was also embroiled in drafting a new programme. The manner in which the draft was composed and its final shape were an important catalyst for the events of August, as the conservatives saw little in Gorbachev's actions to allay their fears.2 Before turning to an assessment of the 1991 programme, a few words on the status of the party programme in Soviet ideological discourse are necessary.

Ideology and the collapse of the Soviet system: a critical history of Soviet ideological discourse

Ideology and the collapse of the Soviet system: a critical history of Soviet ideological discourse

Soviet ideological discourse and Perestroika

Abstract. The role played by Soviet ideology during the perestroika reforms has not been fully analyzed because ideology has not been seen as a structural force influencing Soviet political life. This paper charts the effect that this neglect of ideology has had on some explanations of perestroika and seeks to redress the balance. Various ways of dealing with ideology during perestroika are examined and an alternative approach to Soviet ideology (viewing it as a discourse) is developed. This approach to Soviet ideology shows that it was a vital, but unstable, element of the Communist Party's power. The approach is then applied to the Gorbachev reforms to show how ideology played a crucial part in breaking up the power of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 onwards.

Comparative-Cultural Research in Soviet Psychology

In this special issue of the Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, readers will get a glimpse of a research tradition in Soviet psychology that has never been widespread. It could barely emerge in the midst of the social turmoil of the 1920s, but came alive in the work of Alexander Luria in the early 1930s (Luria, 1931a, 1931b, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1974, 1976), and then vanished into the oblivion of Soviet ideological discourse for decades. A comparative-cultural focus in psychology in the USSR remained largely nonexistent (with very few exceptions) until the breakup of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, its relevance in the history of the cultural-historical line of thought initiated by Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria is profound.