Soviet Russia Research Articles

Unfulfilled intentions: family stories and narratives on unrealised emigration under emigration restrictions

ABSTRACT The paper sheds light on the character of family stories concerning unrealised emigration experienced under emigration restrictions and their potential intergenerational impacts. To this end, it explores the family stories on unfulfilled intentions to emigrate from two countries that were part of the Socialist Bloc, drawing on data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with people whose family members intended to emigrate from the Polish People’s Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic but who have not fulfilled their plans. The study highlights how memories on the experience of unrealised emigration have been transmitted across generations within families, how the character of family stories varies, and what mechanisms may underlie the potential influence of the experience over migration-related attitudes, norms, aspirations, and in some cases intentions and behaviour, of the non-migrants’ descendants.

The KMT’s Shifting Approach to the Outside World during the 1920s: A Reinvention of Chinese Confucianism

Through a Confucian lens, this research explores the transformation of the Kuomintang’s (國民黨; KMT) foreign policy during the 1920s. It examines the shift in the KMT's foreign policy from Sun Yat-Sen’s 孫逸仙 (1866-1925) “Allying with Soviet Russia” (lian’e 聯俄) stance to Chiang Kai-shek’s 蔣介石 (1887-1975) prioritization of Western relations around 1927. The study highlights the reintroduction of Confucianism in the KMT's foreign policy during this period, considering the conventional Confucian education of KMT leaders. Unlike previous studies analyzing this shift from political or historical perspectives, this study provides a chronological analysis that centers around the change to Confucianism. It addresses a significant research vacuum in the existing literature and uses archival analysis to examine the evolution of the KMT’s foreign policy. The study examines primary sources such as Sun’s speeches, Chiang's diary, and contemporaneous memoirs. The study comprises three chronological sections. The first section (1920–1924) explores the influence of Confucianism on Sun’s alignment with Soviet Russia due to commonalities between Confucianism and Communism. The second section (1924-1927) examines how Confucianism shaped the KMT’s Western-oriented shift. The third section (1928–1930) delves into the philosophical basis of the Treaty Revision Movement (Gaiding xinyue yundong 改訂新約運動) and the adoption of ‘keeping good faith and pursuing harmony’ (Jiangxin xiumu 講信修睦) as the foreign policy principle. This research concludes that Sun, inspired by Confucian-Communist parallels, initially aligned with Soviet Russia but that later, under Chiang’s leadership, the KMT used “The Confucianisation of the Three People’s Principles” (Sanminzhuyi 三民主義) in its consolidation of a power shift towards the West and adopted Confucian principles to further legitimize its rule by promoting the New Treaty Movement.

Fashion of Soviet Women

Fashion of Soviet Women

Statistical analysis of the development of the plant production industry by the example of changes in the average yield of grain crops in the XX century. Part 1. Period 1900 - 1933.

The work is devoted to studying the development of the crop production industry in the twentieth century. The theory of cyclical production and change of technological structures is chosen as a working theory. The average yield of grain crops in the Russian Empire and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was determined to indicate production development. The choice of average grain yield is justified by its 'vital role in agriculture in the specified period. The change in the studied indicator is considered in the period from 1900 to 1933. The work provides a 'visual, graphical, historical, and statistical analysis of changes in the average yield of grain crops. The period from 1900 to 1933 is proposed to be divided into smaller periods consisting of H years, defined as small. For each small period, a statistical analysis is carried out, which includes calculating probabilistic characteristics, checking the average yield values for abnormal values, the presence of changes in the indicator during the period, and the nature of this change. Dividing the time interval into small periods allows us to study the change in yield in more detail and identify factors influencing this process. For each period, a hypothesis is put forward about the type of changes, and the acceptance or non-acceptance of the hypothesis is justified. The statistical analysis results are considered within the framework of past events identified during historical analysis. Building a model of changes in average yield during the period under review allows us to assess the industry’s past development and suggest possible future development scenarios. Analyzing the results of a statistical study in combination with historical context will provide a deeper understanding of the reasons for changes in yields and their impact on the development of the industry.

Russian Emigrant Publishing House “Northern Lights” in Sweden (1920—1923): History and Significance

The “peripheral” status of the Russian emigration community in Sweden is due to the geographical location of the country and the absence of major publishing centers. The most fruitful period for the Russian Abroad in Sweden was the first half of the 1920s. At that time, the publishing enterprise “Northern Lights”, founded by I.A. Lundel and E.A. Lyatsky, was operating in Stockholm. During 1920—1923 the organization published about two dozen editions. These were mainly fiction, entertainment, popular science and practical books. A study of the external and internal conditions of the book market showed that it was E.A. Lyatsky who predetermined the short-term success of the organization and its further fate. The publishing house was closed down as unprofitable due to its reliance on expensive quality editions, unprofitable sales logistics and unfulfilled co-operation with Soviet Russia. Professor E.A. Lyatsky repeatedly tried to save “Northern Lights”, even to the point of moving the organization to Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, having given his enterprise a name and built up a reputation, he did not preserve the repertoire, staff and internal culture. This project was important for E.A. Lyatsky, but only a stage in his humanitarian and informational struggle against Bolshevism. It is on the example of “Northern Lights” and especially the personality of its founder that the mission, values and political orientation of the Russian emigration as a whole can be clearly traced. It is important to comprehensively evaluate this historical experience in the context of the development of modern Russia.

Diplomatic cooperation between Soviet Russia and the Western Powers at the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923

The article examines some important aspects of the diplomatic history of the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923, at which an attempt was made to normalize relations between Soviet Russia and Western countries, whose main task remains the geopolitical containment of Russia. Based on archival material, primarily documents from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, published collections of documents and the works of predecessors that have not lost their scientific significance, the author pays special attention to attempts by Soviet diplomacy to ensure the country's security in the Black Sea region. Ultimately adopted in Lausanne, in an environment hostile to Soviet representatives, the Convention on the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits turned out to be directed against Soviet interests. But Russia did not refuse further participation in the conference, not wanting to demonstrate its isolation from international forums, noting, however, that the path of developing relations with Western countries through fundamental economic and political concessions is unacceptable for it. В статье рассматриваются некоторые важные аспекты дипломатической истории Лозаннской конференции 1922–1923 гг., на которой была предпринята попытка нормализовать отношения между Советской Россией и странами Запада, главной задачей которых по-прежнему остается геополитическое сдерживание России. Опираясь на архивный материал, прежде всего документы Архива внешней политики РФ, опубликованные сборники документов и не потерявшие своего научного значения труды предшественников, автор особое внимание уделяет попыткам советской дипломатии обеспечить безопасность страны в Черноморском регионе. Принятая в конечном счете в Лозанне, во враждебной для советских представителей обстановке, Конвенция о проливах Босфор и Дарданеллы оказалась направленной против советских интересов. Но от дальнейшего участия в конференции Россия не отказалась, не желая демонстрировать свою изолированность от международных форумов, отметив, однако, что путь развития отношений с западными странами за счет принципиальных экономических и политических уступок для нее неприемлем.

SCIENTIFIC, THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RESEARCH OF KHOREZM-RUSSIAN RELATIONS IN THE SOVIET ERA (XIX CENTURY AND THE FIRST HALF OF THE XX CENTURY)

This article is dedicated to studying the scientific-theoretical and methodological aspects of bilateral relations during the historical period from the early 19th century to the first quarter of the 20th century between the Khiva Khanate and the Russian Empire (1806-1917), the Provisional Government (March-October 1917), the Soviet state (1917-1920), and the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (KPSR) with the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (1920-1924) in the historiography of the Soviet period. The author attempts to illuminate the scientific-theoretical and methodological aspects of studies conducted during the Soviet era on international relations and foreign policy, based on the "class" approach and commissioned historical research.

The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union: The Dialectics of Rupture and Continuity

Historians, politicians, and other mnemonic actors are actively debating the question about what characterises the relationship between the Romanov Empire and the Soviet Union, i. e. continuity or rupture. The Soviet regime of the interwar period emphasised discontinuity, both in domestic policy and in the international arena. Whenever references to the Romanov Empire appeared in international treaties of the Soviets of that time, it was only in the context of a renunciation of that legacy. However, on the eve of World War II, the Soviet authorities clearly outlined the Soviet state’s claims to its status as a successor state of the Russian Empire, declaring its right to the territories of the Baltic states, Bessarabia, and the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus that had once been part of the Romanov empire, or were claimed by Russia in WWI, such as Galicia and Bukovina. In the USSR, starting in the second half of the 1930s, the image of the Russian Empire as a “prison of peoples” faded into the background, replaced by the arguments about “objective progressiveness” in annexing certain territories and ethnic groups into the empire. However, the role of the October Revolution as the founding myth of the Soviet society persisted until the Soviet Union’s implosion and left no doubt that the rupture was crucially important for the Soviet authorities. During Boris Yeltsin’s presidency in the 1990s, Russia was trying to shape a new narrative of a young nation, which was starting its history from 1991, but the attempt quite predictably failed. After becoming president, Vladimir Putin almost immediately switched to the narrative of “a thousand-year-old state”, proclaiming the legacy of both the Romanov Empire and the Soviet Union part of national history. The article discusses various historiographic approaches to the issue of rupture and continuity between the Romanov empire and the USSR and concludes that one can speak of a radical rupture between the Russian Empire and Soviet Russia (and later, the Soviet Union), since the Soviet project rejected the key components of the late Russian imperial project. At the same time, we can also argue that the imperial nature of the polity itself survived albeit transformed, not just during the 1917–1922 revolutionary crisis but also during the crisis of the 1990s.

Pulp and Paper Industry at the Start of the First Five-Year Plan: Plans and Practices

In Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union, formed in 1922, the pulp and paper industry was poorly developed. Following the First World War, the Civil War and the Soviet-Polish War, the loss of the western regions, where more than a third of paper products were produced, was also a negative factor. Despite the presence of large forest areas, there were not enough resources for their development, and there was no machine-building base. As a result, the Soviet state imported significant volumes of semi-finished products, paper and cardboard. The article analyzes the plans of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR for the development of the pulp and paper industry in the second half of the 1920s, the design and progress of construction of enterprises. It was revealed that the main economic body sought to gradually reduce the import of wood pulp, pulp, paper and other necessary materials through the expansion and construction of production facilities. Trusts and regional economic bodies played a major role in the location of enterprises. For them, new construction provided an opportunity to attract capital investment and create industrial centers. It is concluded that large-scale plans for the development of the pulp and paper industry in the Soviet Union in the second half of the 1920s. were poorly developed from a financial and personnel point of view, were based on the weak level of development of the industry and reflected the optimistic ideas of economists and business executives about the potential of the new economic policy. On the contrary, the competition for projects of pulp and paper enterprises in 1928 reflected the transition from decentralized to centralized design of facilities and demonstrated the priorities of the Soviet government regarding the location of new production facilities.

Учет мнения детей при разрешении споров об их воспитании: практика в Советской России и эволюция нормативного закрепления

Introduction. The Soviet law postulated the priority of the interests of children as the main principle of resolving family disputes. The Modern Russian legislator has adopted this approach. Currently, cases of mandatory consent of children to perform a legally significant action have been established and the procedure for ascertaining the opinion of minors has been regulated. Did a child have the right to vote in Soviet courts? The answer to this question will help to understand the historical background of the formation of the juvenile justice in Russia. Methods. The study was based on dialectics, which acts as a general methodology of scientific knowledge. General scientific, special and specific scientific methods were used. A generalization of the judicial practice of the Soviet period was carried out using analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction. The results obtained were processed using the interpretive method. A comparison of legal regulation in different historical periods is carried out (comparative research method). The principle of historicism made it possible to assess the dynamics of the development of the child’s right to express his opinion when resolving a dispute and to identify cause-and-effect relationships between the Soviet and modern approaches to this issue. Results. It was revealed that in the Soviet Russia the question of taking into account the opinions of children when resolving disputes about their upbringing was raised by judicial practice: first in individual cases, then in uniform explanations. The court was required to take into account the views of children. The forms of ascertaining the child’s wishes were different; priority was given to out-of-court interviews. The older the children were, the more likely it was that a decision would be made in accordance with their wishes. At the same time, the practice of courts, which limited themselves only to the child’s opinion, received a negative assessment. It was necessary to evaluate how well the children’s wishes corresponded to their real interests, the reasons for the lack of contact with persons applying for education, and the living conditions that were created for the children. The continuity of the Soviet experience in modern legal regulation of taking into account the child’s opinion in family disputes is revealed. The requirements developed by Soviet lawyers are applicable to modern court cases.

HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE POLICY IN THE FIELD OF PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN SOVIET RUSSIA IN 1917-1935

The article is devoted to the analysis of legislation in the field of combating child homelessness in Soviet Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. It examined the most important legislative acts and regulatory documents that determined the state's policy to eliminate homelessness and work with juvenile offenders. It is reviewed the chronological period including two decades. It is allowed to the authors to trace the formation and development of the Soviet system for the prevention of juvenile delinquency in accordance to the new National Security Strategy, approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated of 02.07.2021.

(Up)Rooted cosmopolitanism: from anathema to an educational response to contemporary challenges

ABSTRACT In recent years there has been growing scholarly interest in education for cosmopolitanism, a normative social and political theory that views all human beings as citizens of a single global community. Based on the premise that changes in the world are reflected in changes occurring in discourse, this article explores the changes in the concept of cosmopolitanism from the dawn of history, through its rejection in Soviet Russia, to its re-emergence today as a viable educational response to the challenges of globalisation. In the last few decades, the slur of ‘rootless cosmopolitanism’ has turned into ‘rooted cosmopolitanism’ corresponding to a ‘both-and’ approach to both nationalism and cosmopolitanism. It has thus become a driver of educational change in an era marked by hybridity, uncertainty and dialectical non-binary ways of thinking and living in the world.

Protesting Destruction in Chapaevsk: Green Politics in a Late Soviet City

This provincial case study demonstrates the diversity of political movements mobilised by environmental anxieties, particularly outside of Moscow, in the final years of Soviet Russia. By focusing on the emergence of green politics that promoted ecosocialism, the analysis takes up the call proposed by scholars of the Anthropocene by exploring late Soviet Russia as a place of political possibilities, where environmentalism-as-politics became a force for change. The failure of the green movement after 1990, in light of their successes before the dissolution of the USSR, offers new insights into the effectiveness of green politics in the Russian provinces prior to the disintegration of the USSR.

Study of Youth Education Ideas in Lenin's Tasks of the Youth League

The Tasks of the Youth League was published in the transition period of Soviet Russia from wartime communism to the new economic policy, when people's livelihoods were poor, young people's motivation for learning was low, theoretical learning was detached from practice, and extreme leftist ideology prevailed in the country. At this critical time, Lenin emphasised the importance of learning to young people in "Tasks of the Youth League", advocating that young people should strive to learn all the knowledge of mankind, insist on the combination of theory and practice in the process of learning, and abide by communist morality. Combined with the goal and current situation of youth ideological education in the new era, The Tasks of the Youth League has an important revelation for the youth education work in China.

Усилия по восстановлению беломорского промыслового флота в начальный период нэпа

The recovery period of the early 1920s in Soviet Russia coincided with the search for new forms of production management and was complicated not only by economic devastation, but also by the difficult international situation, political and economic blockade of the country. Under such conditions, the long overdue task of modernization of fishing and fur-trading was solved in the Arkhangelsk province, which first of all required providing the fishermen with the newest vessels. Lack of coal did not allow using steam vessels in full measure in the fishery; purchase and construction of vessels at foreign shipyards were also difficult. Therefore, it was decided to restore peasant shipyards as a temporary measure, centrally organizing the construction of small fishing vessels under the supervision of qualified technicians. The models used were Norwegian-built sailing, rowing and motor vessels, which were considered to be the most suitable for fishing in the White Sea and Arctic Ocean. The difficulties that the economic institutions had to face during the transition period (from war communism to the new economic policy) are considered in this article with the help of a large set of archival and published sources. The transition to the use of trawlers and icebreakers is explained not only by the tasks of modernization of the fishing economy, but also by the revolutionary ideology: to prevent conditions for the emergence of a prosperous layer of the Pomor population, which included shipbuilders and shipowners.

Labour Armies as a Form of Organized Labour During the Making of the Soviet Political and Economic Systems: From the Theory to Putting the Utopia Into Practice

The paper is concerned with the prerequisites of the creation of the labour armies during the Civil War in Soviet Russia (1917–1921), the main functions and results of these armies’ operations. The conclusion is made that labour armies were an imminent part of military communism, they never happened to be employed as the Red Army’s reserve but as a tool of militarizing the country’s economy and policies. The evolution of the organized labour units took two directions. Firstly, standardized units were being gradually organized instead of numerous and miscellaneous detachments that made the core of the labour armies in 1920. Another tendency consisted in reducing the number of excessive managerial staff that required additional resources. It is noted that the massive use of the armed forces for labour purposes is always a reaction to the critical situation in which a country finds itself, when neither political nor economic challenges can be responded to by standard means. Thus, the employment of militarized labour units at peacetime can never be justified. On the whole, labour armies proved effective as an emergency means of tackling economic problems and ensuring immediate economic operations. Despite the limited time span in which the labour armies had operated, they left a clear impact on the further course of events in Soviet Russia.

“Böyük Ermənistan” xülyasının reallaşdırılması yolunda “məzlum erməni xalqı”nın azərbaycanlılara qarşı törətdiyi 31 mart soyqırımı

The policy of genocide carried out by Armenian nationalists against Azerbaijanis has a history of more than 200 years. The goal of this insidious policy was the expulsion of Azerbaijani people from their historical lands and the creation of a mythical state of “Great Armenia” in these territories. On March 31, 1918, under the leadership of the Dashnaktsutyun party with the help of the Red Army of Soviet Russia, the Azerbaijani population of Baku was subjected to genocide. The corpses of 57 Muslim women, whose ears and noses were cut off, and their bellies were torn open, were found in one of the neighborhoods in Baku. Armenians threw people alive into water wells, burning ovens, and oil wells, ripped apart pregnant women's bellies with bayonets, killed children with bayonets, nailed babies to walls, raped women, young girls, and old women. They hung men upside down by their legs, cut them in half with swords, crucified some of them on wooden beds, wrapped them in carpets and rugs and burned them alive, cut off people's hands and feet, and forced them to eat their own flesh under bayonets. Wild Armenian gangs burned Muslim clerics in the fire of bonfires lit from the Koran, the holy book of Islam. This was the true face of the Armenian nationalists who loudly shouted about “self-determination”, “autonomy” and “genocide”. The cruelty of Andranik, who made “necklaces” from children’s eyes, and other Armenians, knew no bounds. In March 1918, up to 20 thousand Azerbaijanians in Baku, and in 1917-1920 on the territory of Azerbaijan, more than 400 thousand Azerbaijani people were subjected to “genocide” by the Armenians. As the world ignores these atrocities, they are increasing.

Ch. Aitmatov and the Russian traditionalist prose of the 1960s–1970s (on the 95th anniversary of the writer’s birth)

INTRODUCTION. Ch.T. Aitmatov (1928–2008) is a major writer whose work was originally associated with Kyrgyzstan, was widely known in the Soviet Union, and recognized by the world cultural community. His prose is associated with several directions and trends in Russian Soviet literature. The purpose of the study is to draw parallels between Aitmatov’s works of the 1960–1980s and Russian traditionalist literature of that time, to establish the degree of poetic “kinship” between phenomena belonging to different national cultures.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research material is Ch. Aitmatov’s stories “My Poplar in a Red Scarf”, “Mother’s Field”, the novel “Stormy Stop”, F. Abramov’s novel “Home”, V. Astafiev’s stories, V. Shukshin’s stories. The main methods of studying the material are comparative typological, historical and genetic; a mythopoetic approach to the analysis of literary works is also used.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. It has been established that Ch. Aitmatov’s prose is related to “industrial literature”, to “lyrical prose”, to “youth literature”. The connections between Aitmatov’s stories and novels and “village prose” turn out to be closer. The desire to preserve memory, traditions, and archetypes of behavior characteristic of the centuries-old culture of the Kyrgyz people is of great importance for the heroes of Ch. Aitmatov’s stories and novels. This trend also characterizes Russian traditionalist literature of the 1960–1980s, which declared the need for a careful attitude towards Russian national traditions. In many respects, the images of the main characters and the mythological motifs of the works of Ch. Aitmatov and the Russian “villages” turn out to be consonant and comparable in a number of parameters. Significant similarities were revealed in the perception of the native land and fields in the works of the “villagers” and Ch. Aitmatov, in the depiction of ambiguous socio-ethical processes in Soviet society of the 1960–1980s, in the understanding of the processes of corrosion of a national character.CONCLUSION. Prose by Ch.T. Aitmatov is close to various currents of Russian literature of the twentieth century in its characteristic humanistic orientation, in its attention to the hero involved in solving acute social and ethical problems of the time. Ch. Aitmatov’s prose is characterized by a poetic “kinship” with the traditionalist direction of Russian literature, manifested in genre, composition, figurative, ideological analogies and correspondences between phenomena belonging to different national cultures. They are brought together by the image of the mother earth, an attempt to rehabilitate and preserve the archetypes of national ethics, to integrate them into modernity full of contradictions. It seems promising to further study the parallels between Ch. Aitmatov’s prose and Russian traditionalist literature in order to determine the national identity of the writers’ artistic worlds and clarify the origins of the commonality of their concepts of the world and man.

Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Peasant's House in the 1920s.

After the end of the Civil War, a new type of hotel enterprise appeared in Soviet Russia – the Peasant's House. The first Peasant's House was opened in 1922 in Moscow. The experience of its operation was recognized as successful and regional Peasant Houses began to open throughout the country. In Nizhny Novgorod, the Provincial Peasant's House began its work in 1925. His task was to serve the peasants coming to the city. They were provided with a hostel and meals. The peasants received legal assistance, various references and advice on various issues. Political and educational activities were also provided for peasant walkers: excursions, radio broadcasts, visits to the library. Lectures, reports, debates, question and answer evenings, as well as individual conversations were held in the Peasant's House. From the first years of the Peasant's Houses, the Soviet government sought their transition to full self-financing. The paper provides an analysis of the main directions of development of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Peasant House in the 1920s. The article is based on the materials of the Central Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Regional Archive (TSANO), periodicals, scientific literature. The article uses historical-systemic and historical-comparative methods, as well as general scientific methods such as description and comparison. The conducted research showed that the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Peasant's House was in a difficult situation in the 1920s. Like any new business, the organization and activity of the Peasant's House faced considerable difficulties. The normal activities of the Peasant's House were hampered by material problems. The residential premises provided by the government needed major repairs. The subsidies allocated for political and educational work were not enough. The situation changed only in the early 1930s, when the government decided to build new buildings for peasant Homes.

1965. Рем Колхас в Советском Союзе

The article examines the formative interrelations between the phenomenology of impressions and the formation of a projective approach to architecture based on the fact of the journey of the Dutch architect R. Koolhaas to the Soviet Union (1965). The conducted research involves a textual analysis of the facts in the architect’s biography, which directionally reveals the specifics of the influence of the “phenomenology of impressions”. The article clarifies the significance of the architect’s visit to the USSR, and establishes the formation features of a design approach to architecture. For the Dutch architect, the avant-garde architecture of the Soviet Russia and, in particular, constructivism, represented the basis and the vector of influences that determined the formation of the professional value orientations reflected in the specific concept of the purified formal aesthetics of architecture. The author of the article determines the factors in the formation of R. Koolhaas’ approach related to the experience of conceptual projects of V. Tatlin, K. Malevich, M. Ginzburg, and I. Leonidov. The cited sources (interviews, statements, and lectures) document the pragmatics of the experience of the Soviet constructivist architecture in the context of modern conceptual reality of the deconstruction movement and global architecture. Conclusions are drawn about the relationship between the phenomenon of the Soviet avant-garde architecture (genetic continuity, reception of ideas) and the modern architecture of the deconstruction movement.