Soviet Modernization Research Articles

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

Metamorphoses of the Ob-Ugric ethnicity

Modern approach to the study of ethnicity implies examination of its variability (drift, shifts and procedurality). This paper aims at the analysis of manifestations of ethnicity amongst the Ob-Ugrians in different historical peri-ods (traditional society, Soviet modernization and post-Soviet democracy). The author draws attention to explain-ing dominant role of one or another manifestation of ethnicity. The work is based on author’s observations made during the expeditions in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug (1980s-2000s) and publications by other researchers. Prior to the 1930s, the Ob-Ugric population was represented by a family of related languages and local ethnic groups with close cultures. The main factor of their self-identity was local ethnicity – names by a river. ‘People of the same river’ were bound by commercial, exchange and cultural-ritual bonds. In the official records, the Russian government registered, in the first place, social status of the indigenous population, calling its people ‘inorodtsy’ (‘non-Russians’) and ‘yasashnye’ (‘tributary’). Socialist transformations in the socio-economical, cultural and ideo-logical spheres marked the beginning of the assimilation policy with respect to the peoples of the North. As the all-Soviet standards of living were adopted, and social (including ethnocultural) uniformity achieved, ethnicity of the Ob-Ugrians continuously leveled out. At the same time, their ethnic identity was largely influenced by recording their nationality in the passports – Khanty and Mansy, coincident with the name of the okrug. In the post-Soviet period, ethnicity of the Khanty and Mansy, ‘hibernated’ during the Soviet time, ‘woke up’ suddenly and loudly turn-ing into a powerful creational factor. The ethnic mobilization unwrapped by the initiative of ethnic leaders signifi-cantly raised the status of the ethnic culture and people themselves. As a result, three levels of identity emerged. The first level is trans-ethnicity of ‘natives’ or ‘aborigines’, which is an important political instrument. The second level is official ethnic identity, which is reflected in the ethnonyms ‘Khanty’, ‘Mansy’ and ‘Nentsy’. Its representation in the ethnocultural politics of the okrug (organizing celebrations and festivals, folk group activities etc.) is given a high attention. Lastly, the third level is the traditional local ethnicity.

Elena Goodwin, Translating England into Russian: The Politics of Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union and Modern Russia

Elena Goodwin, <i>Translating England into Russian: The Politics of Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union and Modern Russia</i>

COURTYARD OF THE HOUSING AREA IN THE EYES OF THREE GENERATIONS OF ITS INHABITANTS

This article examines changeability/non-changeability of the notions of the common communicative area at the example of one courtyard in the housing area of Odesa. Since "present city life includes numerous and various cultural features, styles of life and forms of owning of city space" (Holston, Appadurai, 1996), and anthropology gives a possibility to explore how exactly "global processes reflect on the particular person's life and the whole communities on the macrolevel" (Prato, Pardo, 2013), it seemed possible for us to choose as an exploration object one "courtyard", meaning the space in between of multi-story houses.&#x0D; &#x0D; XX century's second half known as the time of global urbanization, as a result of which at the beginning of the XXI century most of humanity turns out in the cities. Soviet modernization, including urbanization, was a part of those processes. USSR's dissipation and Ukraine's formation led to the change of many of every day's practics. All those processes influenced human societies and various local communities. We tried to find out how courtyard's inhabitants under all those complex processes changed their view on the notion of common space. Chronologically this research covers the period since first settlers in the new houses (1979–1980 yy.) until today (the research was set in the spring of 2018 y.).&#x0D; Were used methods of profound themed interview and mental mapping, with the help of which are explored views of three age groups of surrounding houses at common space between them. That way lets to embrace inhabitant's understanding of the courtyard as the common space for the examined period.&#x0D; The main research strategy is started by structuralists method of binary oppositions. For the analysis of changeability/non-changeability of the notions about the courtyard's common space were used binary oppositions collective/individual, activity/indifference, owned/foreign.&#x0D; Noticed by us tendencies of development of the notions about the courtyard's common space directed from collectiveness to individualism, from activity to indifference, from commonality and "our" space to the obscurity of foreign and incomprehension of owning the space."

ПРИНЦИПЫ СОВЕТСКОГО МОДЕРНИЗМА В АНСАМБЛЕ ПЛОЩАДИ ИМ. ГОРОДА ПЛЕВЕН В РОСТОВЕ-НА-ДОНУ

The current desire for compaction of the urban environment is dictated primarily by economic considerations that have changed perceptions of the value of urban development. This leads to the gradual destruction of one of the most important characteristics of Soviet modernism architecture – the aesthetic and functional relationship between the architectural object and the natural environment. Over the past decades, in the regions, including in the South of Russia, the loss of individual structures with artistic value and the entire urban planning solutions occurs. The example is the ensemble of the park named after the Pleven city (Pleven’s ensemble) in Rostov-on-Don. The article is devoted to its studying. The paper provides a retrospective analysis of the gradual formation of the Pleven’s ensemble. The author reveals the architectural, artistic and volume-compositional features of the structures that form it: the square, the park named after the town of Pleven, Bulvar Druzhby, Museum of international friendship, “Pleven” cinema and the supermarket. Spatial relationships between the studied objects and the environment are determined. The field studies define the modern state within the ensemble of objects, and the existing town-planning situation is fixed. It reflects the loss of spatial relations and features of the formation of the urban environment, which are characteristic of Soviet modernism.

ARCHITECTURE OF ODESSA SANATORIUMS (ON THE BORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE)

This publication is dedicated to the energy of Odessa sanatoriums, both disappeared and those on the verge of extinction. A typological classification of sanatoriums is given. It is proposed to divide the sanatoriums into four groups: by the time of their opening and from the point of view of the time of construction of buildings on their territories. According to the proposed classification, a change in the stylistics of the construction of sanatoriums is considered by examples. On the territory of one sanatorium there could be buildings of the period of historicism, monuments of constructivism,architecture of Soviet classicism of the 50s. last century and Soviet modernism. It was revealed that most of the buildings located on the territory of the sanatoriums are architectural monuments, listed in the register of Odessa architectural monuments. It was also revealed that the monuments are in emergency state or are being destroyed and already destroyed.Conclusions on the development of sanatoriums are presented in the form of a table. As a result of writing the article, it became obvious that the architecture of Odessa sanatoriums was insufficiently studied, which makes it possible to conduct detailed research in a number of directions.

SOVIET MODERNISM IN ARCHITECTURE OF PUBLIC CATERING FACILITIES IN ROSTOV-ON-DON IN THE 1960–1980s

Nowadays, the Soviet modernism is one of the most unexplored areas of the Russian and world architecture, which can cause the loss of objects of the cultural and artistic value. The public catering was an important branch of the national economy of the USSR. It led to the mass construction in the country.Purpose: The aim of this work is the multi-aspect analysis of the trends of Soviet modernism used in the design and implementation of public catering enterprises in Rostov-on-Don during the 1960s and 1980s.Design/methodology/approach: The scientific, journalistic literature and archival materials are used in the work. Full-scale studies are performed in relation to preserved buildings of canteens, cafes and restaurants in Rostov-on-Don, dating back to the period of Soviet modernism.Research findings: The soviet modernism is studied for the period of the 1960s and 1980s, and the author's reconstruction of partially or completely lost structures is suggested herein.Practical implications: The obtained results confirm the cultural and artistic value of the architectural objects of the Soviet modernism era and can be used for their preservation and further studies.

Transformation of the Peasant Family Life Cycle in the Middle Urals in Demographical Transition Circumstances

The article examines the transformation of the life cycle of a peasant family in Russia in the 20th century in demographical transition circumstances aggravated by multiple demographical catastrophes. The information basis of the study is databases formed during the analysis of budget surveys of peasant farms in the Middle Urals in 1928/1929 and 1963. Supplemented by information from other sources (materials from the population censuses of 1926, 1939 and 1959), these data allowed the authors to compare the family structure of the rural population of the Urals in the 1920s and the 1960s (the initial and the final stage of the demographical transition) and characterize its dynamics (the life cycle). Whereas in a traditional society the life cycle of a peasant family was largely determined by the dynamics of the peasant economy development, the urbanized society witnesses two standards of the family (two-parent/single parent one) with the corresponding types of the life cycle: the nuclear family (the reference version) and the incomplete family (the reduced version). The consequences of the Soviet modernization contributed to the transformation of fragmented forms of the family into a typical variant of the family landscape not only in urban but also in rural areas. Modeling and analysis of the peasant family life cycle at the micro level made it possible to identify the mechanisms of the peasant family adaptation to external and internal challenges that are characteristic of different stages of the demographic transition.

PERTURBATION OF NATIONAL MOTIVES IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF CENTRAL UKRAINE OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Author analyzed consistent changes in using of folk architecture thesaurus as formative principles and traditional motifs as decorative elements in the architecture of central Ukraine in the first half of the last century, depending on changes in styles and socio-political context. In the late eclectic and modern (Art Nouveau), most architects use not only materials and techniques from decorative arts and crafts, but also creatively rethink the structural elements of traditional housing and sacral architecture for creating new compositions and structures. After the First World War and the Revolution, modern, along with national variations, almost disappeared, giving way to avant-garde. Constructivism and rationalism was devoid of decoration, but local architects sometimes used silhouette elements and constructive techniques from the Ukrainian historical heritage. After the mid-1930s, with the introduction of a formal nativization policy, traditional techniques return in the form of screen-decorations hung on neoclassical structures. Ukrainian Baroque continues to be used, but more as an element of decoration or monumental symbols, which become especially characteristic of the post-war Empire. After 1954, "excesses" in architecture were criticized and decorative "folk" elements disappeared from the face of Soviet modernism. However, since the 1960s, modernist architects have begun to appeal to the heritage of folk wood architecture, borrowing precisely the shaping and design elements that bring them closer to the creative pursuits of UAM creators.

TO THE QUESTION ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF THE SOVIET MODERNIZATIONS

In the context of the theory of modernization created at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s by American scientists, which explained the essence of the historical transition from traditional to industrial society using the example of Western democracies, the nature of Soviet modernization as a separate phenomenon is considered. Classical modernization of the western type was called normative. The views of Soviet historians on the economic development of the Soviet Union and the main provisions of the theory of modernization are compared. While Soviet historiography, considered the beginning of the modernization of Stalin’s industrialization, was officially proud of the latter, the proponents of the theory of modernization, on the contrary, justified its shortcomings and the general negative impact on the further development of the USSR as a whole. It is explained how, during the further development of the theory, the category of non-normative modernization was singled out, to which, according to all the main indicators, economic transformations in the USSR were assigned. Such indicators include lack of democracy, free market, restriction of private property, planned economy, presence of numerous state monopolies, authoritarian model of government. The concept of «non-normative modernization», in the opinion of the author of the article, first, better and more objectively explains the essence of economic processes in the Soviet Union, and secondly, can serve as a marker in the analysis of the economic prospects of those modern states that actually inherited the Soviet model of the economy. The author concludes on the more objective nature of the theory of modernization in comparison with the concept of catching up with modern Russian historians.

“Myths Making”: Western View of Soviet/Russian Historical Memory (Book Review: Davis, V. Myth Making in the Soviet Union and Modern Russia: Remembering World War Two in Brezhnev’s Hero City [Text] / V. Davis. – London : I.B. Taurus, 2018. – 351 p.)

Introduction. The publication is a review of the monograph of British researcher V. Davis, dedicated to the Soviet and Post-Soviet memory of the Great Patriotic War in the hero city of Novorossiysk. Methods and materials. Based on a significant set of published materials and oral interviews, the author characterizes discourse, memorials, and practices related to the genesis and subsequent development of the “myth about Malaya Zemlya”. From the methodological point of view, the peer-reviewed monograph is written from the position of the popular direction of memory studies in the West and is characterized by interdisciplinarity, increased attention to the analysis of memorial discourse, visual representations and social practices, while completely ignoring the complex of archival sources on the research topic. Analysis and Results. The main conclusion of the author is that through its association with L.I. Brezhnev’s biography during his reign, the “malozemelniy myth” became an important part of not only local but also national historical memory. Generally, the reviewed book is a valuable contribution to the study of the collective memory of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet and Post-Soviet period, and the debatable nature of its individual provisions can serve as an incentive for the emergence of new studies. The main disadvantage of the book in terms of its scientific significance is the author’s desire to impose on the reader non-obvious political conclusions about the total mythology of the Soviet/Post-Soviet memory of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the permanent militarism of public consciousness in the USSR/Russia.

The Toiling Froy and the Speculating Yidene: Discourses of Female Productivization in the Soviet Shtetl

Despite the fact that Jewish women statistically outnumbered men in the former market towns of the Soviet Union, the discourse of the “new Jew” in the 1920s and 1930s focused overwhelmingly on the Jewish male and was debated primarily by men. This article explores what the restructuring of the economic base of the shtetl meant for Jewish women during the New Economic Policy and the transition to the Stalin Revolution when party activists and theorists grappled with the “shtetl problem” and the question of Jewish productivization. Utilizing socioeconomic studies, political reports, and ethnographic sketches, it raises questions about the perspectives of the (largely male) observers who documented Jewish women in the former market towns. How did these accounts portray the “female economy” of the shtetl, the role of Jewish women as either facilitators or disruptors of Soviet modernization, and the relative value of women’s productive and reproductive labor at a time of profound social disruption?

Soviet Modernity and Modernity of Soviet Period

The article discusses the concept of multiple and entangled modernity that is proposed instead of universal Western-type modernity that is criticized by the modernity discourse. We argue that the concept of multiple modernity is broadened by the concept of entangled modernity. The latter explains the multiplicity of modernities and the theoretical possibility of a certain universal model of modern society through the global interaction of societies. From the point of view of entangled modernity, a certain universality of societies arises not from the structural evolution of society itself, but from the interaction of modern and pre-modern societies. The concept of entangled modernity allows one to analytically distinguish between the Soviet modernity and the Soviet period modernity, which can be used to describe the modern Lithuanian society of the Soviet period. The modern Lithuanian society of the Soviet period is the result of an interaction of the modern Lithuanian society with the Soviet project of modern society that was forcibly implemented by local social agents of the occupied society.

Was Maoist China a Clone of the Soviet Union?

Was Maoist China a Clone of the Soviet Union? Felix Wemheuer Lucien Bianco, Stalin and Mao: A Comparison of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, translated by Krystyna Horko. 448 pp. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-9882370654. $65.00. Elizabeth McGuire, Red at Heart: How Chinese Communists Fell in Love with the Russian Revolution. 462 pp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0190640552. $34.95. It has become fashionable in Western China studies to write about transnational entanglements between the People's Republic (PRC) and the Soviet Union or to compare the development of both countries. The similarities of Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China are obviously many, making it impossible to cover them all in a single text. Two new books approach this comparison from different angles. Lucian Bianco looks at the great leaders and macropolitics in Stalin and Mao: A Comparison of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, while Elizabeth McGuire uses a focus on personal relations and microhistory in Red at Heart: How Chinese Communists Fell in Love with the Russian Revolution. This review discusses the two monographs within the larger context of Western China studies and with attention to paradigm shifts in Sino-Soviet relations. Paradigm Shifts in Western China Studies Since the mid-1930s, Western scholarship regarding the impact of the Soviet Union on the Chinese Revolution and later the PRC underwent several paradigm shifts. During World War II and under the alliance of the United States and China against the Japanese Empire, Chinese Communists were often considered anti-imperialists and nationalists. The bestseller Red Star over China, written by the American journalist Edgar Snow, contributed to [End Page 442] the view of Mao Zedong as a grassroots revolutionary. The lives of communist leaders in the revolutionary base area in Yan'an were presented by Snow as simple and egalitarian. Therefore, Snow saw Chinese communism as an alternative to bureaucratic state socialism in the Soviet Union.1 When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949, the Cold War had already started. Anticommunist hardliners in the McCarthy era blamed "liberals" of the former Roosevelt administration and scholars in China studies for underestimating the communist threat and causing the "loss of China." In the 1950s, the newly founded PRC was often seen in the West as a "Soviet satellite state" and "totalitarian dictatorship." Western perception started to change significantly due to the rise of the Anti–Vietnam War movement and the New Left around 1968. Activists and many scholars then saw Maoist China through the lenses of anti-imperialism and Third World liberation movements.2 The New Left considered the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) an experiment in mass participation and rural based-development strategies. Western media reports about the horrors of the Cultural Revolution were often ignored as "anticommunist propaganda"; violence was rationalized, because "revolution is not a dinner party," as Chairman Mao had said. The guerilla fighter and the "barefoot doctor" became poster children for an alternative development model to Western and Soviet modernity. CCP criticism of "Soviet revisionism," and in part Western scholarship, emphasized the "Chinese way" of building socialism.3 From the 1930s until the early 1990s, the history of the CCP was often written as step-by-step emancipation from domination by the Comintern and the Soviet Union. The departure from revolutionary Maoism in China after "Reform and Opening" in 1978 destroyed many dreams and illusions. However, it was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the archives of the Comintern and CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), that the history of the Chinese Revolution was rewritten again. The new findings from archives deconstructed the myths that the CCP had taken an independent path from the Soviet Union. Stalin's guidance and Soviet support had played [End Page 443] a crucial role in creating the second United Front with the Nationalists (GMD) against Japan in 1937 and in bringing the CCP into power in 1949.4 Archival documents show that Soviet advisers influenced the development of the political and economic system in China in the early 1950s based on the Stalinist model. In the fields of culture, education, agriculture, and policies...

Namus’ in the Soviet Caucasus: Growing up and ‘Traditional Modernity’ among Kavkazi (Mountain) Jews

This article discusses adolescences and educational processes among the Caucasian (‘Mountain’) Jews during the late Soviet period. Based on a combined anthropo- logical and social- history research I describe and analyze how the world of Caucasian Jews’ children and youth were shaped in relation to several content worlds: the traditional worlds of Caucasian Jews (Juhuro); the Soviet-communist world which was also the main mediator of modernization; and the immediate social and cultural surrounding, shared by several local groups, mostly Muslims. The traditional socialization patterns of Caucasian Jews stresses the importance of the extended family, stressed hierarchy and seniority related to age. Juhuro (Caucasian Jews) socialization highlighted codes of honor and respect connected to the term ‘Namus’ – a behavioral code regarding the right way to behave, inner consciousness, and several prohibitions – especially in gender relations. At the same time, the Soviet state educational system, both formal and informal, stressed modern values and highlighted Soviet communist ideology. Soviet educational system introduced a de-facto new status of adolescence- while traditionally there was much less moratorium period between childhood and adulthood among Caucasian ‘Mountain’ Jews (and other Caucasian groups). While these content-worlds and educational approaches seems to be in tension or even contradictions, I will argue that in practice there were mechanisms that allowed a great dill of complementary between them. Soviet modernization and socialization were transmitted– andmediated– by educational agents who were themselves members of the traditional groups of Caucasus. The outcome were several version of what I call ‘traditional modernity’, with various manifestations in the different communities of Caucasian ‘Mountain’ Jews, which got different shapes in relations to location (towns/ villages etc) and the characteristics of the local surroundings. The understanding of these patterns is important not only for historical studies, but also for educators who cope with current educational challenges in the different diasporas of Caucasian ‘Mountain’ Jews nowadays.

Автономии в странах СНГ: советское прошлое и современность

Автономии в странах СНГ: советское прошлое и современность

The Trickster and Soviet Subjectivity: Narratives and Counter-Narratives of Soviet Modernity

The Trickster and Soviet Subjectivity: Narratives and Counter-Narratives of Soviet Modernity

Komsomol and the School in Mordovia in 1953–1964

Introduction. The issue of youth education has always attracted general attention. In this regard, the experience of the Soviet era is curious. Under the prevailing criteria of this period, as the time of totalitarian domination and ideology, it attracts attention and is interesting for research. The subject of this study was the period of the Khrushchev thaw, when significant changes to the Stalin reform were carried out, including the work of the Komsomol at school. This article discusses the process of educating communist youth in the republican schools during the transition from universal seven-year education to the creation of conditions for the transition to universal secondary education through involvement in labor and socially active activities. Materials and Methods. For solving the set of the research tasks, archival materials, statistical data, and also scientific literature were used. The study was conducted on the principle of historicism, objectivity and systematic. The statistical method was used in data processing. Results. Based on a study of archival sources, as well as available scientific literature, the main problems were identified, and the activities of the Komsomol in schools during the Khrushchev thaw were also considered. Against the backdrop of increased participation of the Komsomol in the educational environment, the processes of self-organization and effective activity of the Komsomol organization in schools are shown. Discussion and Conclusion. The Komsomol was ideologically and organizationally formed in the conditions of revolutionary upheavals caused by the Great Russian Revolution of 1917, the Civil War and the beginning of socialist construction. In a harsh atmosphere of mobilizing forces and resources for the implementation of Soviet modernization, the youth union was formed not only as a socio-political organization, but also as a state institution with a multifaceted structure for implementing youth policy and socializing the younger generation on communist ideas. The meanings inherent in the activities of the Komsomol were historically unique: universality, unitarity, ideologization, extreme centralism and hierarchical organizational structure. Not a single youth structure in the world, according to researchers dealing with this problem, has reached such a state, position and all-consuming orientation towards the implementation of its tasks.

URBAN SPACE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES: THE INVENTION OF TRADITION?

The purpose of the article is based on Eric Hobbesbaum’s theory «Invention of tradition», consider this on a local example. The highest concentration of «invented» traditions, according to Hobbesbaum, is usually there where society is rapidly destroying, losing its previous social forms. To construct new traditions materials are used old materials, which have been accumulated in every society Among these old materials, Hobbesbaum mentions in particular the «repositories of official ritual». Deserves special mention that classical anthropological and sociological studies of the city paid attention to similar phenomena. Thus, according to L. Wirth, the influence that the city has on the way of life could not completely destroy the ways of human association that existed before. M. Glakmen noted the mutual influence of urban and tribal lifestyles, which resulted in an extremely dense network of heterogeneous contacts, characterize for African cities.Our example in this work is the socio-cultural space of Odessa in the last third of XX–beginning of XXI century. The era of Soviet modernization was directly linked to the urbanization processes that significantly changed the social structure of society. The post-Soviet period is also related to«Radical transformations» that have had a significant impact on daily practices.The objectives of the article are to analyze the «material»from which new traditions are constructed, in particular, to participate in the construction traditionsof borrow from «repositories of official ritual».

The Transformation of the Soviet Agriculture

The Soviet past is crucial in understanding the processes of transformation of the Lithuanian kolkhoz system into the farming practices of free-market economy. The violent and forced incorporation of the nation-states into the Soviet Union radically transformed societies. In our analysis of kolkhoz system and its transformations, we use two different concepts – Soviet modernity and modernity of the Soviet period. These concepts let us to approach the agricultural project of the Soviet collective farming as an alternative system of social institutions for implementation of industrial farming of modern society. The concept of entangled modernity refers to interaction of two trends of modernization and defines the kolkhoz as a hybrid or a result of intertwining of two models of modernity – the universal and the Soviet one. By applying the concept of entangled modernity and hybrids to the interpretation of the kolkhoz’s post-Soviet transformation, the article explores the experiences of social actors and the inevitable human and material losses of the hybrid’s transformation. In our theoretical interpretation, we use data from interviews with former agents of the kolkhoz system and legislative documents.