USSR History Research Articles

Belief and Prediction Narratives in Rethinking Discourse: The Experience of Soviet Science Fiction and Ad in the 1950s

In the USSR of 1950s, the sociocultural foundations for the functioning of social practices and institutions were the opposite to those in subsequent periods of the USSR history and modern Russia. In addition, they are opposite to the currently dominant trends in world’s development, depicted in “Retrotopia” of Zygmunt Bauman. In the culture of that time, people poorly expressed mass nostalgia as they searched for an emotional community with collective memory. Rationality was the main defining feature of the 1950s. From this point of view, the author examines narratives aimed at correcting the “Soviet” discourse, discredited during the Second World War and political changes in Soviet society in the late 1940s — early 1950s. There are two types of narrative: the belief and prediction, which were broadcast through commercial advertising and science fiction literature. The prediction narrative remained a specific attribute of the1950s culture and did not receive further promotion.

Влияние марксистско-ленинской идеологии сталинской лингвокультуры на школьные учебники истории СССР 1930–1950-х годов

The paper considers the formation and development of the USSR history education exposed to the 1930–1950s state policy and expressed in the resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People’s Commissars. It analyses the origins of the widespread revolutionary terminology in the political, social and everyday life of the country. The paper focuses on the formation of a special linguistic culture of the Soviet society after the release of I. V. Stalin’s «Short course of the CPSU (b)». It updates the influence of the official documents language, party leaders’ and statesmen’s public speeches, the «Short Course of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks», 1930–1950s Soviet periodicals and dictionaries on the vocabulary of the school history books of that time. The educational publications of this period conducted the Marxist-Leninist understanding of history and served a tool for influencing the worldview of Soviet schoolchildren. The main textbooks of this period contain numerous examples of specific words, reflecting the interpretation of historical events and processes in line with Marxist-Leninist ideology. The paper provides brief information about the authors of educational publications and the results of textbook competitions initiated by the party and state bodies. The conclusion refers to the content adjustment of history textbooks depending on ideological attitudes.

Кафедра истории СССР Кабардинского государственного пединститута (конец 1940-х – 1957 г.): основные направления научных исследований

Based on archival documents and historiographic sources, the article defines the main directions of scientific research of teachers who worked at the Department of History of the USSR of the Kabardian Pedagogical Institute in the late 1940s–1957. The facts of the scientific biography of A.I. Pershits, V.A. Ryumin, V.P. Krikunov, I.F. Muzhev, A.I. Shchegolev, M.N. Krivushin, T.I. Agapova, R.H. Gugov, T.Kh. Kumykov related to this stage of their scientific and pedagogical ca-reer are presented. The article shows that one of the priority areas of scientific activity among the employees of the Department of USSR History in the period under review was the development of the key problems in the history of Kabarda. The article was written for the ninetieth anniversary of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University and is dedicated to the teachers who stood at the origins of historical science and historical education in the republic.

НАУЧНЫЕ ШТУДИИ ИСТОРИКА ИВАНА МИХАЙЛОВИЧА ИОНЕНКО

This paper summarizes the life and work of Doctor of History, Professor of Kazan State University Ivan Mikhailovich Ionenko (1913–1989), a Soviet historian and the Honored Scientist of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. A list of sources necessary for reconstructing I.M. Ionenko’s biography was compiled. The stages of his life path were identified. The influence of changes in the historiographic situation of the second half of the 1950s and the discussions held during the 1960s was discussed. I.M. Ionenko’s participation in the activity of the Science Council on the Complex Problem “Great October Socialist Revolution” was analyzed. His role in the establishment and development of the Volga Section of the Science Council and the Regional Association of Agricultural Historians of the Middle Volga Region was shown. The focus of his research regarding the development of agricultural history, the Great Russian Revolution, and the Great Patriotic War was revealed. I.M. Ionenko’s work as the head of the Department of USSR History of Kazan University and as the founder of the scientific school was considered. It was concluded that a thorough analysis of the research activities of I.M. Ionenko, as well as reviews of his works, office documents, memoirs (those of him and his colleagues), and archive may contribute considerably to the study of the scholar’s biography.

THE PROCESS OF TEACHING NATIONAL HISTORY IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN UKRAINE: FORMING NEW CONTENT

Every political authority, even a historical one, puts forward its “own” demands on history and historians. It was, and probably always will be. This was no exception during the restoration of the Ukrainian state in the 1990s. From ideological monism, Ukrainian science has shifted to reforming social and humanitarian education in the country, including historical education. The beginning was in 1988, when the existing Soviet power, realizing that it was impossible to stop the process of change, brought it under its control, setting up a coordinating committee to develop a program for the development of historical research, to improve the study and propaganda of the history of the Ukrainian SSR. The Commission proposed to separate a course of history of the Ukrainian SSR in secondary and higher education into an independent educational discipline, to expand the number of schools with advanced study of history, and to organize training in leading universities of specialists in the history of Ukraine. But to proclaim does not always mean to do. The cardinal changes will begin later and will be discussed in this article. Until the 1990s, Ukraine had no national concept of historical education. Until 1989, the history of the CPSU was the only basic historical discipline in all higher education institutions of the USSR, as well as in the entire Soviet Union, regardless of profile of study or region. The main educational programs were approved centrally in Moscow by the General Directorate Teaching of Social Sciences of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the USSR. In 1989, the course of the history of the CPSU was withdrawn from the educational program of higher education institutions and was replaced by the obligatory historical discipline - “Social and political history of the XX century”. In 1990, universities were granted more rights in defining the content of training. This facilitated the deployment of a grassroots initiative to improve the content of historical teaching. The first such initiative was made by teachers and students of higher educational establishments of Lviv region, where since 1990 most courses of history of Ukraine were taught in most universities, although the official status of this course has not been determined yet by the goverment. In 1992, universities of Ukraine are moving to an in-depth study of national history, re-profiling the departments of USSR history into the departments of Ukrainian history, increasing the number of hours of studying the history of Ukraine for students of historical specialties. But a major drawback in teaching the history of Ukraine was the lack of science-based course programs. In 1993, the Scientific and Methodological Commission on the History of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine began the development of a typical program for the course of history of Ukraine as a kind of reference for the departments of history of Ukraine of higher educational institutions. The development and approval in 1993 of the program of the normative course of history of Ukraine for students of history faculties of higher educational establishments, as well as the drawing up in 1994-1996 a typical program of the basic course of history of Ukraine for other higher educational institutions contributed the development of scientific approaches to teaching Ukrainian history, and clarification of teachers’ positions on discussion issues in history. At one time with the development of the educational programs, the national concept of historical education in Ukraine was created and improved. Key words: history education, history program, national history, course of the History of Ukraine, higher education institutions

Traces of the “New Direction” in the Soviet Historical Studies on the Pages of Samizdat

In the chronicle of the Historical Faculty of Gorky Ural State University (now Ural Federal University), which is going to celebrate its 80 th anniversary in 2018, there is a dramatic page, confirming the modern theory of “mental pluralism” of Soviet people. In this case, it concerns ideas that gave rise to a “new direction” in historical studies in the 1960s and 1970s. Scholarly discussions about the peculiarities of the multi-structural nature of the socioeconomic structure of pre-revolutionary Russia based on the studies of Moscow scholars (A. L. Sidorov, I. F. Gindin, K. N. Tarnovsky, L. M. Ivanov, P. V. Volobuev, M. Ya. Gefter, etc.) and Ural scholars (V. V. Adamov, T. K. Guskova, P. A. Vagina, L. V. Olkhovaya, etc.) faced harsh criticism and accusations of academic inconsistency ignoring the Leninist analysis of the said issues, and the understatement of Russia’s readiness for a proletarian revolution. Found in the Open Society Archive (Budapest, Hungary) whose collection of Soviet samizdat amounts to several thousand items, the document published below reflects the reaction of dissident society to this historiographical situation unusual for the late Soviet research. An article entitled Issues of Capitalist Russia was published in 1974 in the Zemlya , a journal imbued with Russian national ideology. The main character of the article is Head of the Department of the USSR History of the Pre-Soviet Period, Ural State University, Vladimir V. Adamov, the inspirer and editor of the disgraced collection of articles Issues of the History of Capitalist Russia. Problems of Multi-Structurality , which was published in Sverdlovsk in 1972.

Red Clones: The Soviet Computer Hobby Movement of the 1980s

The Soviet microcomputer hobby movement began in the early 1980s. It passed through two main developmental stages before it melted away a decade later, leaving behind a country enchanted with microcomputing. This article traces the development of the movement and assesses its significance and place in the USSR's history of computing.

Old DOI 10.1109/MAHC.2015.43 - good doi -10.1109/MAHC.2015.11 - Red Clones: Soviet Computer Hobby Movement of the 1980s

old DOI 10.1109/MAHC.2015.43 - good doi -10.1109/MAHC.2015.11 - The Soviet microcomputer hobby movement began in the early 1980s. It passed through two main developmental stages before it melted away a decade later, leaving behind a country enchanted with microcomputing. This article traces the development of the movement and assesses its significance and place in the USSR's history of computing.

Ussr oil Concession Policy Alternatives: The Lessons from Ussr History and Modern Western Practice

Ussr oil Concession Policy Alternatives: The Lessons from Ussr History and Modern Western Practice

Ergonomics and labour protection in the USSR and the commonwealth of independent states — historical landmarks and present status

The article describes the difficulties of ergonomics formation in the USSR. The relationship of ergonomics and labour protection are also discussed. Advanced and conceptual studies in the field of ergonomics and labour protection were carried out at all stages of USSR history; ingenious concepts and approaches were suggested and many regulations, technological norms, and concrete recommendations to improve engineering facilities, labour processes and conditions were developed. The main results of the All-Union scientific and technological ergonomic program are characterized. One of the main aims of the program was to improve labour conditions and to reduce the number of accidents and catastrophes. The contradictory influence of perestroika on ergonomics and labour protection development is shown. The causes of the gap between theory and practice in ergonomics and labour protection are analysed.

Le recensement de la population de 1937 : mensonges et vérité

The history of soviet statistic of the 1930ies is without doubt the only example of the history of european statistic having been so catastrophic. In the most hard period of the USSR's history, official statistic has been the object of repression. The author writes an history of the 1937's census which will be consi dered officialy as defectuous, and of the 1939's census, which has been made after that. He uses the most recently discovered sources. He describes the relations between official statistics and political institutions, and proves how they cannot modify the observations as they would like.

The archives of the council for religious affairs

Since 1989 it has been possible for western scholars to work in at least a part of the archive of the Council for Religious Affairs (CRA) attached to the USSR Council of Ministers.' This research note is based upon my own experiences in the archive during July 1991, although its conclusions are limited by the relatively short period of time at my disposal on that visit. The archive is to be found in the Tsentral'ny Gosudarstvenny Arkhiv Oktyabr'skoi Revolyutsii (Central State Archive of the October Revolution, TsGAOR) located in Moscow's Main Archival Administration on Bol'shaya Pirogovskaya ulitsa. Access to the archive requires, or at least did before last August's coup, a letter from a recognised Soviet institution in my case the Institute of USSR History attached to the Academy of Sciences. Once one is past the door the archivists supply one with opisi (indexes) relating to the archive fond one wishes to work in. I was given four indexes relating to the work of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church (CAROC) (1943-65) and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults (CA RC) (1944-65).2 Two limitations of the material were immediately obvious: firstly, the apparent 25-year rule that limited access, in my case, to the period ending in December 1965 (a rule which is presumably updated each year); secondly, the fact that this was only a part of the archive, and that from the available opisi one could deduce the existence of other material still being kept from researchers without special contacts (this may have changed since the coup). From the four lists I was allowed to choose a certain number of files to work with each day. The material contained in the open section of the archive included: documents relating to the setting up and roles of the councils; instructions and rulings issued by them; correspondence with other bodies; statistical tables relating to registered places of worship, priests, monastic institutions etc.; minutes of the regular sessions of the councils (though those were absent for some years); reports from regional commissioners; summaries of conversations between council employees and church leaders; reports written by religious leaders returning from foreign visits. What is lacking is detailed material on the councils' dealings with the Central Committee apparatus and the central political leadership in general. In this report I cannot provide a detailed analysis of the material in the archive, but will simply pick out a few points of interest mainly relating to the Khrushchev period and to my own interests in religious policy making.

USSR Oil Concession Policy Alternatives: The Lessons from USSR History and Modern Western Practice

USSR Oil Concession Policy Alternatives: The Lessons from USSR History and Modern Western Practice

Review Of G. Z. Ioffe, The Collapse of the Monarchist Counterrevolution in Russia

The monarchist counterrevolution in Russia began immediately after the downfall of tsarism. It did not lay down its arms for years. And it was no accident that V. I. Lenin directed attention to this danger, holding that the outcome of the class struggle during the years of revolution and civil war could be either dictatorship of the proletariat or dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and landlords "up to and including monarchy." (1) Although a segment of the counterrevolutionary camp, the monarchist counterrevolution also had its own identity, its own tactics. The book devoted to this subject by G. Z. Ioffe, candidate in history and senior research associate of the Institute of USSR History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, is marked by his effort to encompass the problem as a whole. The author deals with the activities of the monarchists, the failure of their plans and intentions in 1917 between February and October as well as after the triumph of the socialist revolution, in the years of civil war, and in the White emigration.

On the Teaching of Historiography in Higher Educational Institutions of the USSR

The significance of the history of historical science (historiography) in the system of higher education in history, as a discipline of the greatest importance in terms of method and political ideas, has now long been recognized, as evidence of which we have the introduction of this subject in the standard curriculum not only of universities but of teachers colleges. As early as 1962-63 the subject and content of the university course in the historiography of USSR history was discussed in the pages of Problems of History [Voprosy istorii]. Problems of teaching courses in historiography have been discussed regularly at USSR-wide historiography conferences convened by the USSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education jointly with the Learned Council on the History of Historical Scholarship of the History Division, USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1961, 1963, 1965, and 1969. But these questions were discussed in fullest detail at the USSR Conference of Teachers of Historiography convened in Smolensk by the History Division, USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Ministries of Education and of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the USSR, at the end of January and early February 1973.

The Solution of Certain Problems in USSR History by Electronic Computer

Modern electronic computers are widely used in science and engineering. They are used where a large number of formal operations must be done in a brief period. Electronic computers are most effectively used in cases in which it is necessary, in the course of solving the problems, to process a large amount of initial information or to perform numerous computations.

Experiences in a Seminar on First-Year USSR History

The everyday work of teaching always incorporates an element of seeking, of creativity. One becomes convinced of this if one has passed through the History Department of Moscow University and attended the seminars of such scholars and teachers as M. N. Tikhomirov, V. V. Stoklitskaia-Tereshkovich, K. K. Zel'in, A. I. Neusykhin, E. N. Bespalova, and others. For all the importance of the delivery of a course of lectures, seminars demand a greater mobilization of the teacher's powers. The success of the seminar depends upon his ability to bring to the student the techniques and habits of research and to instill an interest in independent creative research. The themes of future works of scholarship sometimes take shape in the process of schooling, even beginning with brief reports in the first year. It is specifically at seminars that the bases of the shaping of the future scholars are shaped. Under the present system of instruction, in which ample texts and monographic materials are available for lecture courses, the significance of seminars in the system of training the student for practical work becomes greater and greater.

Final Plenary Session (December 21) and Conference Recommendations

The final plenary session opened in the main auditorium of Moscow University with reports on the work of the various panels of the conference. The recommendations proposed by the panel on Party history were presented by D. M. Kukin, Assistant Director of the Party Central Committee's Institute of Marxism-Leninism; those of the USSR history panel by M. P. Kim, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences; and that of the world history panel by V. M. Khvostov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. (The recommendations are presented in this communication in the final sections of the reports on the work of the panels.) Then Academician B. N. Ponomarev presented his closing remarks.

The 22nd Party Congress and the Training of Specialists in USSR History

The 22nd Party Congress and the Training of Specialists in USSR History