Soviet Legacy Research Articles

The Economic Implications of the Relationship between Pharmacy and Psychiatry in Lithuanian 2001-2020: The Problem of Biomedical Access

Although previous research in Lithuania has indicated the construction of the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness through historical and cultural chapters, a considerable amount of research has been published in foreign literature that has emphasized the role of the pharmaceutical industry in diagnosing and treating mental illness. In this paper we examine the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry (pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing companies), healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations in the mental health field. The relationship between the pharmaceutical industry (pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturing companies) and healthcare professionals can be analyzed in two ways: research-oriented interactions and promotion practices. This relationship is inevitable and can be beneficial, however, conflicts of interest arise, which create a risk of potential harm to users and patients (e.g. as receiving suboptimal or unsuitable treatment, or waste of private and public money). This research analyzes both the relationship between the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and the pharmaceutical industry market in Lithuania in 2010-2020, as well as the efforts of Lithuanian health care institutions in restructuring the mental health care system. Based on the analysis of the literature and statistical data, we state that after the restoration of independence, the main method of mental health treatment in Lithuania is still medical treatment, i.e., patients with mental illnesses and behavioral disorders are treated with medication. The main factors determining the still dominant method of medical treatment of mental illness are the following: first of all, the Soviet legacy (the paradigm of medical treatment - the Soviet paradigm); secondly, the restoration of independence in our country has created excellent conditions for Western pharmaceutical companies to develop their activities and increase sales of medicines, including psychotropic drugs; and third, medical treatment is cheaper for the state than complex treatment. This study draws on an analysis of the social origins of mental illness, while reviewing the previously unappreciated role of the interests of pharmaceutical companies in expanding their markets for the treatment of mental illness with drugs.

River Beaches in Russian Cities: Examples of Soviet Legacy

The diversity of urban heritage is determined by some national peculiarities of the development of cities and towns. In Russia, river beaches are common recreational elements of urban environments. Representative examples of such beaches from two cities, namely Rostov-on-Don and Cherepovets, are examined. This study utilizes both a qualitative approach for argumentation of heritage value and a semi-quantitative evaluation of aesthetic properties. It is argued that the urban river beaches are linked closely to the cities’ identities. They were created in the Soviet times when significant attention was paid to healthy lifestyle and rational planning in growing and industrialized urban areas. Two main findings are the potential historical heritage value of the urban river beaches of Russia, including two examples considered in this study, and their significant appeal to the visitors’ sense of beauty. Although Rostov-on-Don and Cherepovets represent very different natural and socio-economical environments, their river beaches are important in regard to the representation of the cities’ identities and aesthetics. This importance is a bit higher in the case of Rostov-on-Don. It is generally concluded that river beaches in Russian cities constitute potential, country-specific heritage, which seems to be a part of the Soviet legacy. Creating their national catalogue with GIS technologies is desirable.

Revival of Russian Language in Central Asian Republics in the Twenty First (21st) Century

Russian language went into a decline during the 1990s when Central Asian Republics (CARs) simultaneously embarked on the process of nation and state building along with economic transition. The CARs desired to diversify their political and economic relations and to lessen their dependence on Russian Federation during their early transition period. Due to its own economic and political problems associated with its transition, Russia could not pay full attention to its former Soviet states during the immediate post-Soviet period. However, due to the Tsarist and particularly Soviet legacies, the economic connectivity and interdependence of former Soviet states on Russian Federation proved long lasting. The revival of Russian language in former Soviet Central Asian Republics is mainly due to the theory of Economics of Language which explores mutual effects of language and economic variables. It says that fluency and command over a dominant language i.e., a language of science and technology and trade provides more dividends. The CARs are still heavily dependent on trade and remittances of their nationals working in Russia. A large number of workers from the countries of Central Asia work in the Russian Federation. Their remittances contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDPs) of these countries. The CARs re-started promoting Russian language in their countries due to a significant role of this language in their economies and economic relations with Russia. Since 2000, the Russian economic revival has naturally strengthened its political and economic role in the former Soviet space which also includes Central Asia. Consequently, the Russian language also received fresh emphasis.

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

Reassembling Society in a Nation-State: History, Language, and Identity Discourses of Belarus

AbstractThe article examines the political and cultural processes of nation-building over thirty years of independence in Belarus. It argues that in becoming a nation-state Belarus has faced challenges similar to the other post-Soviet nations but has proved an exception in the choice of strategies it used to address them. The paper examines how, on the eve of independence, the nationalist elites devised policies aimed at consolidating statehood around the national revival in opposition to the Soviet past. It explores the role played by linguistic policy and historical memory as the two main arenas for implementing their visions of Belarusian identity. The paper then maps a shift in this trajectory from Lukashenka’s rise to power to a national project based on reappropriation of Soviet legacy. Up until 2020, the state effectively navigated a geopolitical environment and adjusted its sociocultural parameters to preempt the society’s shifting expectations. Finally, the paper reflects on how protests in 2020 demonstrated both the lack of support for Lukashenka and his reliance on the violent repression and external support for remaining in power. The war in Ukraine revealed limits of Belarus’s sovereignty, while the society’s ability to consolidate for its defense has been seriously undermined by the repression.

СОВЕТСКАЯ ИСТОРИОГРАФИЯ ПАРТИЗАНСКОГО ДВИЖЕНИЯ В СИБИРИ 1950—1980-Х ГОДОВ: ДОСТИЖЕНИЯ И ПРОСЧЕТЫ

The article presents an analysis of the Soviet historiography of the partisan movement in Siberia in the late 1950s–1980s. The processes of overcoming the consequences of the cult of personality in historical science, the revival and development of the Leninist concept of the Civil War are studied. Its influence on the content of research is characterized. Their main directions and results are identified. It is noted that a lot of work has been done to introduce new sources into scientific circulation. The scope of research has expanded, and the number of publications has significantly increased. Positive results were achieved in studying formation, structure, strength, deployment of partisan detachments and formations, their participation in warfare, authority organisation in partisan areas, and the struggle of political groups in the partisan movement. However, the preservation of ideological dogmas prevented objective and comprehensive studies of such a complex, multifaceted phenomenon as the partisan movement in Siberia. Contrary to reality, influence of the Bolshevik Party and the Bolshevik underground on formation and development of the movement was significantly exaggerated. The questions about partisan terror, criminal component of the movement, and relations between partisans and the indigenous population remained outside the scope of research. The partisans’ relations with the local population, their political moods and orientations were biased. Therefore, Soviet historians failed to create an objective and complete picture of the partisan movement in Siberia during the Civil War. At the same time, modern researchers should not ignore the Soviet legacy, they should rely on its positive results.

Exposure to Immigration and Sense of Socio-Territorial Belonging: Evidence from Russia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between exposure to immigration in one’s region or locality and sense of socio-territorial belonging, understood as a “we-feeling” toward other inhabitants of the territory. Based on the Russian case, it addresses the question whether higher intensity of in-migration is related to weaker sense of belonging and how this relationship depends on immigrant origin. Using survey data combined with official statistical data, I found a negative relation when immigration from non-CIS states is considered, but not in case of in-migration from CIS states. I interpret these findings in terms of symbolic boundaries and the Soviet legacy.

Higher education regionalism in the former Soviet Union: a qualitative exploration of Russian university branch campuses

ABSTRACT Drawing on higher education regionalism, this paper explores international branch campus (IBC) initiatives undertaken by one of the largest Russian IBC-exporting institutions, the Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU). To date, very little is known about higher education (HE) export-import between the post-Soviet countries. This qualitative inquiry critically examines the Soviet legacy of LMSU IBCs to understand their origins, purposes, and utility as a form of HE export. This paper sheds light on (1) the similarities and differences between six LMSU IBCs and (2) discourses used to rationalise the establishment of LMSU branch campuses. The findings from this paper suggest that LMSU IBCs are established (a) to promote the Russian HE model, (b) to strengthen political and cultural ties with neighbouring countries, and (c) to bolster LMSU’s image and brand appeal in the region.

The Real Consequences of Symbolic Politics: Breaking the Soviet Past in Ukraine

Conflicts over symbolic issues are prominent in public affairs, but do they have wider political consequences, and if so, why? We study the electoral effects of Leninopad (“Lenin’s free fall”), a sudden wave of demolitions of Soviet monuments in Ukraine. Difference-in-differences estimates show that the removals of the Soviet symbols mobilized supporters for parties with a relatively sympathetic view of Ukraine’s Soviet past. We attribute this backlash effect to a signaling mechanism: the removals indicated the weakening power status of the Soviet legacy parties, which motivated their supporters to turn out in elections. This backlash dissipated once the Soviet symbols ceased being a contentious partisan issue due to the escalating war in eastern Ukraine. Symbolic politics has real, nonsymbolic consequences, but only when it maps onto partisan cleavages.

“Less USSR, more democracy please!”: Hope and discontent in Georgia's quest for academic freedom

AbstractIn Georgia, the question of academic freedom emerged only after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and its universities could begin reckoning with a heavy past of ideological pressure, censorship, governmental control and top‐down management. Despite official declarations of the right to academic freedom and its recognition within Georgia's legal framework, actual practice in the country's higher education system tells a different story. The paper draws on qualitative data obtained from sixteen academics representing diverse institutions and disciplines, as well as the secondary data including educational legislation, government regulations, ministers' decrees, various reports from non‐governmental organisations, think tanks and media archives. The findings of this paper reflect how academic freedom is understood in Georgia and two major threats to its exercise in universities, namely, interference from external politics and internal managerialism. We argue that academic freedom as a concept does not yet have its own place in Georgia's higher education system, protected de jure but with different de facto realities. The paper sheds light on how Soviet legacies of self‐censorship, hidden mechanisms of control and a culture of conformity continue to create tensions inside universities and an environment in which academic freedom cannot flourish.

The Hidden 1950s: Narrative of Prefigurative Culture

In the history of the USSR, the 1950s are a period rarely comprehended by historians as a whole. Instead, they are interpreted as a time of transition from the high Stalinism culture to the thaw era. Meanwhile, at this time, the economic and military-technical basis of the Soviet legacy was laid, which became the basis of the Russian economy. The sociocultural factor that determined the specifics of the time is what Margaret Mead defined as a prefigurative culture — a state of society in which adults learn from their children, who are endowed with new rights. It found its expression in the fiction and art of the 1950s.

Dismantling monuments as the core of the post-2014 ‘decommunisation’ in Ukraine and Poland

Drawing on a wide range of sources (Polish and Ukrainian legal acts, Russian and international media), this study looks at the ‘monument fall’ in Ukraine and Poland as part of the post-2014 memory wars. The purpose of this article is to identify the main patterns associated with the demolition of Soviet and Russian monuments in the two countries. The ‘decommunisation’ of public space is an element of Ukraine’s and Poland’s politics of memory, enshrined in legal acts. Its driving force is the Institutes of National Remembrance, whose priorities include dismantling Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian monuments, which came into full swing after the beginning of Russia’s special military operation to denazify and demilitarise Ukraine. The official narratives allot Poland and Ukraine the role of victims of ‘two aggressors’ in World War II, which found themselves under ‘communist occupation’. Therefore, the politics of memory of the two countries seek to get rid of the ‘Soviet legacy’ as the legacy of the ‘occupying country’. Whilst Poland pursues ‘residual decommunisation’ focused on dismantling the remaining memorials to Soviet soldiers-liberators, Ukraine is committed to transforming ‘decommunisation’ into full-scale ‘derussification’. At the same time, the process of ‘re-Sovietisation/Sovietisation’ has been launched in the liberated territories of Ukraine. It consists in restoring previously destroyed monuments or installing new ones.

Is Ukraine a Multiethnic Country?

This paper critically examines the widespread perception of Ukraine as a multiethnic country with clear boundaries between ethnic groups. It demonstrates that despite the Soviet legacy of rather strong institutionalization and discursive presentation of nationality, the post-Soviet state discontinued or downplayed most of the institutional mechanisms for the reproduction of ethnic distinctiveness and virtually abandoned the use of ethnic categories in official discourse. While several smaller minorities retained some institutional backing and discursive presence, the once very large group of ethnic Russians ceased to be publicly presented and popularly perceived as clearly distinct from the bulk of Ukrainians. At the same time, Ukrainian citizens differ greatly in their ethnocultural practices and ethnolinguistic identifications, hence Ukraine certainly remains ethnoculturally diverse, and this seems to be a more appropriate designation than “multiethnic.”

Soviet Legacy and Imagined Past Converge in Levant Battlefields

The article analyzes main drivers of the revitalization of the Soviet ideological narratives in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. A key impetus for the study has been ever increasing number of the terrorist attacks claiming dozens of lives in Russia committed by Central Asian originated fighters as well as arrest of dozens of members of the various religious organizations banned in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The hypothesis rests on the assumption that ideological cacophony stemming from deep controversies embodied in the refashioned Soviet ideological narratives to me major cause of the problem. While employing the path dependence approach, I mainly point to interaction between the surge in the religious extremism and ideological disorientation caused by ideological disorientation in the region continuing since the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 to address main research question “what are external implications of post-Soviet ideological narratives in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?.” The paper finds out that the post-independent identity policies are not designed to build a new idea but to moot or keep at arms-length identities marginalized during the Soviet period. The Soviet legacy constitutes the core of the neo-ethnic identities introduced by former communist leaders just slightly refashioned with highly selective and politically motivated supplements. Sharp contradictions embodied in these narratives designed to ensure policy goals is among drivers of the ideological disorientation which in its turn acts as a breeding ground for the recruitment of Uzbek and Tajik youth to the global terrorist networks.

Under the Weight of the Soviet Legacy and Political Repressions: The Radical Left in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract Mass protest movements of the early 2010s, particularly the Occupy movement, stimulated the rise of radical left organizations globally. In Southern Europe, radical left parties celebrated their first electoral successes. In Russia, radical left organizations were also influenced by this upsurge of social protest movements and participated in the Bolotnaya protests in 2011–2012 but were marginalized and disintegrated shortly after, resuming their activities only by 2019. This article explores the radical left movements and groups in Russia and offers projections for their future. The Russian radical left is divided into three sub-groups: fundamentalist communists who identify with Stalin and the Soviet Union, libertarian socialists and communists (subdivided into neo-anarchists, autonomists, and neo-Trotskyists), and hybrid organizations (e.g., the Left Front). These organizations face two major constraints unknown to their Western counterparts. First, Russia’s authoritarian regime blocks opportunities for independent, particularly electoral, politics. This reveals itself in targeted repressions against left radicals and anarchists. Second, the dominance of the CPRF blocks any potential of strong left opposition. Unless these restrictions are lifted, radical left organizations in Russia will not be able to overcome their current crisis.

Polska mniejszość narodowa na Białorusi w okresie BSRR jako czynnik bezpieczeństwa narodowego ZSRR (1945-1985)

The Polish national minority in the USSR, including the BSSR, was viewed from the aspect of state security as an unreliable, subversive element. In this regard, it had to be Sovietized and Russified. In the conditions of the BSSR, there was also a specificity of the solution of the Polish question: first, the Poles were subjected to Sovietization and Byelorussification, and then to Russification. It was not possible to fully implement the plan for Sovietization and depolonization of the region and thus turn the Polish national minority into a Soviet society of power. The cultural and national specificity of the Poles of the BSSR and especially in the Grodno region has been preserved. However, the Soviet legacy in relation to the Polish national minority in independent Belarus has survived, including in the post-Soviet imperial complex “Great Belarus”, a character-istic complex of “small empires” for most of the former Soviet republics.

Managing Opioid Agonist Therapy in the Post-Soviet Limbo

According to Dante, “Limbo” is the first circle of Hell located at its edge. Unlike other residents of Hell, the Limbo population suffers no torment other than their lack of hope. We argue that a lack of hope in post-Soviet Ukraine is expressed by a lack of conditions for a better future since the past is overrepresented in the present. Therefore, every movement transforms under the past’s pressure, changing its course in order to reproduce and perpetuate ghosts of what is long gone. We argue that the current state of Ukraine can be framed as “post-Soviet limbo.” If the great stability of the Soviet regime was a result of overregulation and extensive control, or of “uncertainty avoidance,” then a post-Soviet limbo is a result of “managing uncertainty” simultaneously influenced by Soviet legacies and neoliberal promises of growth, calculability, and deregulation on the part of the State. “Soviet legacies” are dominant and represent a mix of formal overregulation explicitly presented through laws and policies and informality which, according to some authors, became even more widespread in the post-Soviet period than it used to be under the Soviet rule. We do not aim to consider the past legacies as being opposite to neoliberal features and futures, but negotiate the way the two are interrelated and mutually reinforced in the present to produce the post-Soviet limbo. Ukraine’s performance of Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) coverage is consistently estimated as insufficient and needing further improvement. However, we argue that that there are two modes of OAT implementation in Ukraine: state-funded (formal) and privately-funded (informal). The latter’s size does not fall into official estimates since the national reports on OAT performance never include the numbers of patients involved in informal treatment. We suggest, that the informal mode of OAT implementation appeared as a result of contrasting efforts towards intensive regulation and extensive growth. To understand how these two modes are produced in the context of post-Soviet narcology, how they differ and where their paths cross, we analyze two types of texts: legal and policy documents regulating substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, mainly OAT; and qualitative data, including interviews with OAT patients and field notes reflecting the environment of OAT programs. Finally, the presented article seeks to answer how the state’s contrasting efforts to manage the uncertainty of SUD treatment through OAT regulation and implementation reproduce the post-Soviet limbo and, thus, people with SUD as “patients of the state” who are frozen in a hopeless wait for changes.

Soviet legacy is still pervasive in health policy and systems research in the post-Soviet states.

We examine how health policy and systems research (HPSR) is produced and funded in 14 post-Soviet states to inform possible strategies to improve the supply and quality of research and advance evidence-based health policy making in these states. Mixed methods. Using mixed methods - secondary data analysis, desk review and in-depth interviews - this qualitative study is exploratory and explanatory.The secondary data analysis involved a comparative analysis of available data from: a) the 'fiscal space' (national economic resources) - using gross domestic expenditure on research and development for the years 2013-2018; and b) capacity for HPSR - using the number of published papers and average citation per paper (as a quality proxy) in the years 2015-2019. To explain the secondary data analysis findings, we used the approach proposed by Hallerberg et al., highlighting the importance of institutional context, actors, and their incentives and influence in budget allocation decisions. The desk review of available documents and 32 in-depth interviews were conducted remotely to obtain insights on the context and actors. The interview transcripts were analysed using Nvivo 12 software with an inductive approach. In all studied countries, except the Baltic states, funding levels for HPSR remain inadequate. Most research and development funding is allocated to fundamental sciences and biomedical research - fields with more influential long-standing institutional legacies. The low volume and poor quality of published HPSR research appears to be adversely affecting the credibility of researchers in this field in the eyes of critical beneficiaries - policy makers, who do not prioritise and advocate for funding of HPSR. HPSR funding in most post-Soviet countries is caught in a vicious cycle of inadequate funding and poor quality. International collaborative projects focused on post-Soviet states and involving science funders, academic institutions and researchers from those countries may help strengthen HPSR capacity, improve research quality and help boost priority funding and the credibility of researchers in this field.

Contested Language Diversity in Contemporary Russia and Ukraine

The various phases of dealing with minority/ national languages in the Soviet Union and in its successor states evidently reveal the polarising effects that language diversity can have in multinational societies. This article aims to analyse the area of tension between minority language legislation and minority activism in Russia and Ukraine during the last decade. Both countries are intensely engaged in language-dominated processes of identity-building. However, both are dealing differently with the Soviet legacy in language policy. Accordingly, the article not only examines the top-down perspective of changes in language legislation in both countries, but also sheds light on the bottom-up minority language activism that appears as a reaction to the latest decisions of the governments in the language sphere. On the basis of interviews with respondents from two language minorities (Kalmyks in Russia and Hungarians in Ukraine) this article highlights various aspects of minority communities – from different experiences with Soviet language policy to current developments of language and identity, language use in education, language attitudes, and reactions to state language policy.

A Quest for Due Process Doctrine in Vietnamese Law: From Soviet Legacy to Global Constitutionalism

Abstract Due process—the ‘soul’ of a modern constitution—was not seriously taken into account under purely socialist legal systems in general as well as in pre-2013 Vietnamese constitutions in particular. Since the 2013 Constitution, Vietnamese jurisprudence has incorporated the human rights-limitation principle (substantive due process) for the first time and strengthened the application of universal fair trial rights (procedural due process). This constitutional development is the result of the fact that, over the past two decades, the class-based perception of human rights has been increasingly less important and has been almost replaced by universalism. This article claims that, because of the influence of Soviet jurisprudence, the Vietnamese version of due process has been characterized by the fact that human rights could be arbitrarily trumped by public interests and that fair trial rights have been problematically limited to criminal proceedings and almost ignored in non-criminal procedures. This article analyses the importance of, and the challenges involved in, incorporating the human rights-limitation principle into the 2013 Constitution and argues for an extension of fair trial rights to all kinds of criminal, civil, administrative, and mixed procedures in keeping with global constitutionalism.