Quiz #2
Islam
("submission to Allah") has the second largest number of adherents in contemporary Russia after Eastern Orthodox Christianity
GULAG
- Stands for Chief Directorate of prison camps in former Soviet Union. -In the Soviet Union, a system of forced labor camps in which millions of criminals and political prisoners were held under Stalin. -so much of the GULAG is unknown- really was slave labor. Often worked to their death. -Very often little work was accomplished, but on a massive level: the GULAG was successful in terms of infrastructure/economy. -Est. by Lenin, but doesn't take off until 30s with Stalin Era.
Soviet Nationalities Policy
-"indigenization" (korenizatsiia) -Politically and culturally, the nativization policy aimed to eliminate Russian domination and culture in the said soviet republics. The de-Russification was forced even on ethnic Russians and their children. -the cadre of the local Communist Party were promoted to every level of government, and ethnic Russians working in said governments were required to learn the local language and culture of the given soviet republic.
Muslim
-("one who submits to Allah") identify with about 40 different ethnic groups in Russia -many different ways of being Muslim (ultra conservative to less so)
Gulag Archipelago
-A collection of Soviet-era labor camps for political prisoners, made famous by writer *Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn*. -Some of the most brutal ones
Day of Family, Love and Fidelity
-A holiday created for family, love, and fidelity. -Falls on the same day as the Orthodox holiday, Peter and Fevronia Day. -family values -proposed this holiday in the 90s and in 2008 they instituted it. -weird mix between the secular holiday and the orthodox holiday.
Provisional Government, "Dual Power"
-A temporary government created by the Duma after the abdication of the czar; it made the decision to remain in World War One, costing it the support of the soviets and the people.
Butovo polygon
-Butovo Polygon operated as a "special object," which was code for secret execution site, from August 1937 to October 1938. During this time, nearly twenty-one thousand people, including clergy and common citizens, were killed and buried here.
November 7, 1917
-Celebrating October Revolution of 1917. It has now been replaced with "Day of Reconciliation and Agreement" but now celebrated the "Day of National Unity" on November 4.
Day of Memory of Victims of Political Repression (October 30)
-Day of celebrating the politically repressed -reading of names ceremony
Memorial Society
-Founded in 1987 -Russian historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicizing the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
Mufti Ravil Gaynutdin
-He has served as the Grand Mufti (head of the Central Council of Muftis in Russia) of Russia for the Muslim Russians since July 1, 1996. -Has relations with Putin
Rabbi Berel Lazar
-Head of Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in Russia -Thought it is important to revive the religious part of Judaism that was lost during the Soviet Era: the Chabad made that happen.
Rabbi Adolf Shayevich
-Head of Russian Jewish Congress -since 1983 been the rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, which is traditionally regarded as Moscow's main Jewish house of prayer. -During the days of the Soviet Union, Shayevich was sometimes unofficially referred to in the West as the "Soviet Union's Chief Rabbi"
Alexander Kerensky
-Headed the Provisional Government in 1917 (after the end of the Romanov's rule). -Refused to redistribute confiscated landholdings to the peasants. -Thought fighting the war was a national duty. -On 7 November, his government was overthrown by the Lenin-led Bolsheviks in the October Revolution. He spent the remainder of his life in exile, in Paris and New York City, and worked for the Hoover Institution.
"passion-bearers"
-In Russian Orthodox Christianity, a passion bearer is someone who faces their death in a Christian or Christ-like way. They were not killed because of their religion, unlike martyrs, but they love God and show good virtues.
Day of National Unity
-It commemorates the popular uprising which expelled Polish occupation forces from Moscow in November 1612, and more generally the end of the Time of Troubles and turning point of the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618). -The day's name alludes to the idea that all classes of Russian society united to preserve Russian statehood when there was neither a tsar nor a patriarch to guide them. In 1613 tsar Mikhail Romanov instituted a holiday named Day of Moscow's Liberation from Polish Invaders. -It was celebrated in the Russian Empire until 1917, when it was replaced with a commemoration of the Russian Revolution. Unity Day was reinstituted by the Russian Federation in 2005, when the events of the year 1612 have been celebrated instead of those of 1917 every November 4 since. -The day is also the feast day of the Russian Orthodox icon of Our Lady of Kazan.
October revolution of 1917
-Lenin was pushing to have it as soon as possible because if the provisional government falls and no longer backs the war (WW1) then the Bolsheviks will lose support. -want the army's support because the army is starting to turn agains the provisional government. -The Bolsheviks come to power and overthrow the Provisional Govt. and take over the Winter Palace. -Lenin wants one-party rule: Communism is through single party dictatorship (only way it can be successful).
Beslan School Siege
-On September 1, 2004, armed Chechen rebels (guerrillas) took approximately 1,200 children and adults hostage at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia
"memory politics"/ "memory wars"
-Remember: people don't spend the time to think about 1917. -A political activity, people in charge of storing these memories. -history remembered based on guilt- memory is ever-changing because of these different views. -EX: the Russian Revolution was celebrated for 75 years and then after the fall of the USSR, all of a sudden it was gone. -Identity construction: if a society is divided, then it won't work
February Revolution of 1917
-Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending Romanov dynastic rule and the Russian Empire. A Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov replaced the Council of Ministers of Russia. -The revolution appeared to break out without any real leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, which compounded after the start of World War I in 1914. Disaffected soldiers from the city's garrison joined bread rioters, primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers on the streets. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, the city fell into chaos, leading to the overthrow of the Tsar. In all, over 1,300 people were killed during the protests of February 1917. -the revolution against the Czarist government which led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government in March 1917
First Chechen Wars
-Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands despite Russia's overwhelming advantages in firepower, manpower, weaponry, artillery, combat vehicles, airstrikes and air support. -The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire with the Chechens in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later.
"The Tale of Peter and Fevronia"
-STORY: Prince Peter tries to slay the snake that is trying to kill his brother, Prince Paul and he is successful. Unfortunately he gets sick with scabs all over his body from the snake and finds a peasant, Fevronia, that has the medicine to heal him. She agrees to treat him if he promises to marry her after. He agrees, but after he is treated he leaves without marrying her. He gets sick with the scabs again and has to go back to her, and this time actually marries her. She comes back with him to the kingdom, but people don't like that she is a princess because she is a peasant. Soon Prince Paul dies and Peter becomes king. Fevronia helps him a lot in ruling and making decisions about the kingdom, and people get even more upset at that so they ask her to leave. She and Peter run off to an island together. The kingdom is left with no-one to run it, so after a little while they are asked to return. They reign wisely and happily until their last days, which they spend in monasteries. They know they will die on the same day and ask to be buried in the same grave. The Russian Orthodox tradition does not allow for a monk and a nun to be buried together, but the bodies are twice found to disappear from the original coffins and finally remain in the common grave forever. -INFO: This day helped with the Demographic issues. -posters out in Russia all about motherhood, no father role. -Fevronia had the power, he would die if he didn't marry her. - no emphasis on having children -The ideal of marriage is not solely for childbearing, rather for self-sacrifice.
Execution of last Romanov family (emperor Nicholas II, empress Alexandra, 5 daughters and 1 son) along with attendants Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp and Ivan Kharitonov on night of July 16-17, 1918
-Shot by the Bolshevik party after being kept away in a house in exile. -People didn't find out they they killed the others other than Nicholas II until the 1940s. -In 1919 the counter revolutionists searched for them, didn't find bodies, just materials. -People became interested in the 90s during Gorbachev because he opened up the archives.
SLON (The Solovetskii Camp of Special Purpose)
-The Solovetsky Islands special purpose camps (abbreviated as the SLON in Russian) were created in 1922-1923 from the so-called Northern Camps around Archangelsk with the aim of isolating and liquidating the political opponents and enemies of the Bolshevik regime.
"Wall of Grief"
-The Wall of Grief is a monument in Moscow to the victims of political persecution by Joseph Stalin during the country's Soviet era.
postmemory
-The generations after's relationship with the cultural trauma that was lived before them (not personally experienced), continued to affect the following generations. -Parents blocked this post memory from their children (=an amnesic society).
Natalya Poklonskaya and Matilda
-Tsar Worshipper groups had issues with this movie because it showed Nicholas II in a bad light. -Natalya Poklonskaya is a Russian Politician who is a Tsar Worshipper and was very against this movie because of how bad Nicholas II was seen and created a campaign against the movie.
Rus'
-What Russia was called before it was established as Russia. (founded in 882 AD)
"reconciliation and concord" (Yeltsin v. Putin, in use of term)
-Yeltsin: uses these terms to say that were are all guilty. The murders and destruction make them all guilty, not a crime, but rather a moral mistake of the people in the past. -Putin: values the entire history of Russia, dating back centuries ago, rather than focusing on the revolution and Soviet rule. He doesn't want to celebrate or remember something that was terrible.
Second Chechen War
-an invasion launched by the Russian Federation, starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Brigade (IIB). The campaign ended the de facto independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and restored Russian federal control over the territory.
"Reading of Names"
-commemorate the repressed -reading of names ceremony -end with "eternal memory": orthodox tradition vs. "never forget, never forgive".
Ramzan Kadyrov
-former rebel, became president of Chechnya in 2007, fighting has not stopped, endorsed by Putin -Over the years, he has come under criticism of international organisations for a wide array of human rights abuses under his watch, with Human Rights Watch calling the forced disappearances and torture so widespread they constituted crimes against humanity. He has also been criticized in Western press for his advocacy for restricted public lives for women, and a campaign of mass detention for those who are suspected to have engaged in homosexual behavior.
Mufti Talgat Safa Tajuddin
-head of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia -Has relations with Putin
Pale of Settlement
-largely rural territory within the borders of czarist Russia wherein the residence of Jews was legally authorized. Mainly Yiddish speaking. -It was abolished in 1917
Sunni Hanafi school of legal thought
-majority of Russia's Muslims embrace this school of thought, very popular -this school of law founded in the 8th century, named after the Persian jurist and theologian, Abu Hanifa (699-797)
The Martyrdom of Boris and Gleb
-martyr: death has no power, die for their faith. -brother vs. brother -Boris gave into his killing by his brother because he didn't want to create a war if he fought back. -Boris died willingly, not resistant to evil.
Wahhabi/Wahhabism
-school of law, getting back to pure form, mainly named after Saudi Arabians, much more conservative viewing -cleansing of the sacred sights (want to get rid of the Kabbah)
"Solovki"/Solovetskii Islands
-started in 1917 -a labor camp that was called a specialization camp first. -not set up to maximize labor though, rather a way of correcting/reeducating -The site was a monastery/church where the Romanov's brought prisoners, but gave them freedom within the land. -Was turned into a labor camp- had everything: their own "govt.", railroads, ships, etc.
Lubyanka
-the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. -Many didn't even make it to the labor camps and were sent there and most likely killed, usually on Lubyanka Square in public.
Dzhokhar Dudayev
-was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen leader. -the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a breakaway state in the North Caucasus.
What are the three modes of imperial corporation employed by the Soviet Union, as a means of incorporating different geopolitical regions?
1) Colonialism 2) Integralist incorporation 3) Absorption of local elite
According to Toal, what are the three, competing geopolitical visions of post-Soviet Russia?
1) Liberal European Russia 2) Revived imperial Russia 3) Independent Great Power
Kievan Rus' (Kiev)
A monarchy established in present day Russia in the 6th and 7th centuries. It was ruled through loosely organized alliances with regional aristocrats from. The Scandinavians coined the term "Russia". It was greatly influenced by Byzantine Empire, which is what christianized Rus.
988
Christianization of Russia
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Confederacy of independent states of the former Soviet Union that have united because of their common economic and administrative needs.
According to Malinova, what are the two conflicting models that inform memory politics in Putin's Russia?
Memory politics is a political activity, people in charge of storing these memories. History remembered based on moral guilt. This means that there are 2 conflicting models: the first one is that the people (their ancestors experienced it) and the second is that the government remembers it a certain way.
Russian Orthodoxy (pravoslavie)
Russian form of Christianity imported from Byzantine Empire and combined with local religion; king characteristically controlled major appointments
According to Karimova, what are some of the factors that help to explain the current Muslim Tatar search for the "right" kind of Islam?
Some of the factors that help explain this are different views on how to practice Islam the right way. Some people studied abroad, some had different practices (hijab or no hijab, praying, etc.).
NKVD
Stalin's secret police
Nord-Ost hostage crisis
The seizure of a crowded Dubrovka Theater by 40 to 50 armed Chechens on 23 October 2002 that involved 850 hostages and ended with the death of at least 170 people. The attackers, led by Movsar Barayev, claimed allegiance to the Islamist separatist movement in Chechnya.[1] They demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War.
Review the various post-Soviet challenges that Muslims in Russia faced after the fall of Communism, including in particular the lack of religious schools on the territory of Soviet Russia. What problems did this initially cause?
This initially caused a disunification of the religion, specifically with what ways were the right or wrong way to practice. With a lack of religious schools this meant that people who wanted to study to become clergy had to go abroad, but when they came back, they had different practices than the Russian Muslims who didn't go abroad to study. This created a lot of unrest within the Muslim community in Russia.
"A rope hangs from house to house. On the rope—a banner swings: 'All power to the Constituent Assembly!' An old woman weeps and keens— what on earth can this mean? Who needs such a thing? Such a big piece of cloth... When our boys don't have enough footwraps—naked and unshod..."
This quote from a poem is showing how so much of the state's money went to funding the Constituent Assembly after the October Revolution in 1917. The narrator is saying that funds are being sent there but leaving behind so many people who actually need the money to survive.
"Post-Soviet memory operates as a living combination of various symbols, periods, and judgments, which are experienced simultaneously."
This quote is explaining that remembering the Soviet era is so different for every person. Each person has a different story, whether it be something they personally experienced or something their family member experienced. It created for a very confusing historically accurate recount of the time period.
"It was a rule rather than an exception that the perpetrators of one wave of terror became victims of the next. Though in every singular act of torture or murder the victim and the execution were separated by an enormous distance, the fact was that a little later, in several months or years, the executioner would likely become a victim of the same treatment. This rotation makes it very difficult to reach any historical, philosophical, or theological—in fact, any rational—understanding of these events."
This quote is explaining that through killings and labor camps, everyone was being arrested that no one knew anymore who the bad people were/why they were being arrested or killed: executioners became the victims. So all of this confusion makes it very difficult to have one set historical account of these events, resulting in each person having their own understanding and memories of the events.
"And Kolyma was the greatest and most famous island, the pole of ferocity of that amazing country of Gulag which, though scattered in an Archipelago geographically, was, in the psychological sense, fused into a continent—an almost invisible, almost imperceptible country inhabited by the zek people."
This quote is showing how the labor camps were like their own continent, separated from the rest of the Soviet Union. They had laws and rules of their own and were so separated from the rest of the world.
"We are seeing the consolidation of civil society around the common values that shape the foundations of statehood such as Russia's freedom and independence, humanism, interethnic peace and accord, the unity of cultures of Russia's multiethnic peoples, respect for family and faith traditions, and patriotism."
This quote is showing that Russia's state believes that a national identity is being established in Russia. Putin wants people to see that people living in Russia are forming common values and cultures are unifying. The state wants the people of Russia to support their country and in order to make that happen, he has to show the people that unification already exists.
"The Russian family can hardly be characterized as traditional or conservative from the legal point of view. Moreover, the very notion of the Russian family is problematic due to Russia's ethnic, cultural, religious, and regional diversity."
This quote is showing that it is difficult to have the ideal Russian family because of how culturally diverse Russia is. Russia can't have one set of common values and norms because their society is so diverse.
The February Revolution of 1917 was now considered the highest point of Russia's movement along 'the normal' or 'European,' path. [...] Reinterpretation of the October Revolution as 'a catastrophe' radically transformed its established meaning: the historical event that used to be considered in terms of 'national glory' became represented as collective trauma....However, there was no consistent efforts to create an appropriate memory infrastructure for the new narrative."
This quote is showing that there are different narratives regarding the revolutions of 1917. Putin and his government see it as a catastrophe they need to leave in the past, Yeltsin saw it as a moral mistake, not a crime, and the Communist Party saw it as a triumph, and the people have differing narratives because they all remember it in different ways. Due to so many different narratives, this has resulted in not being able to form a historically accurate account of the events of 1917. This is a memory war because of all of these differing views.
"It is perhaps odd that a Russian-speaking, Italian Hasidic Jew trained in the United States has been named chief rabbi of Russia, a country where most Jews eat pork and do not know the names of the five books of the Torah. The screaming divide between the nontraditional Jewish identities in Moscow and Rabbi Lazar's appearance and observance is even more obvious than the fact that he is not Russian. Chabad forces Moscow Jews to ask a question that might not have occurred to them otherwise: 'Who is an authentic Jew?'"
This quote shows that Jews were constantly asking themselves what the right way was to be Jewish. With a foreign rabbi coming in, that disrupts what being Jewish meant in Russia. You can be Jewish culturally, without being religiously Jewish, which was very common due to the influence that the Soviet Union had on the religion. Once this conservative rabbi came in people started to question what it meant to be a religious, practicing Jew.
"In the fearful years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months in prison queues in Leningrad. One day somebody 'identified' me. Beside me, in the queue, there was a woman with blue lips. She had, of course, never heard of me; but she suddenly came out of that trance so common to us all and whispered in my ear (everybody spoke in whispers there): 'Can you describe this?' And I said: 'Yes, I can.' And then something like the shadow of a smile crossed what had once been her face."
This quote shows that being in the labor camps really messes with people's minds, putting a trance over them. This woman had the strength to get out of that trance by recalling the writer. Many people's minds were so messed up that they were never the same after they got out of the camps.
"My language, my coarse miner's language, was as impoverished as the feelings that still survived around my bones. Reveille, lining up for work, dinner, end of work, time to sleep, please sire, may I speak, spade, shaft, yes sir, drill, pickax, it's cold outside, rain, cold soup, hot soup, bread, ration, leave me a cigarette end: for some years I had made do with about two dozen words. Half of these words were swear words. When I was a young man, a child I fact, there used to be a story about a Russian getting by when he traveled abroad with just one word repeated in different intonations. [...] But I wasn't searing for any other words. I was happy not to have to search for other words. I didn't know if they existed."
This quote shows that being in the labor camps reduces one's language vocabulary, leaving one's language raw and cut down. In the camps, a common language was produced because they lived the same life every day. They were like robots living the same dreadful day over and over.
"In Western Europe then, it would appear, pilgrimage may be perceived—in part at least—as a self-conscious (re)discovery of a heritage lost as a result of abrupt religious repression....the continuity implicit in "tradition" is not stressed—the pilgrims are aware of the chronological distance, and the deep rupture, between themselves and the historical past they seek in a particular place. Invention of tradition here...carries with it not the negative academic connotations of an insidious top-down imposition of values, but the possibility of an imaginative engagement with the distant past.... Pilgrims in Russia, however, are dealing with a far more immediate history of forced state secularization—one which if they themselves did not experience directly, then their parents and grandparents did. While England's Christian pilgrims and neo-pagans may be liberated by their awareness of the evident discontinuities and reconstructions at sacred places, and stimulated thereby to perform, create, and express themselves, Russian Orthodoxy's reliance on Church tradition and its experience of the state's efforts to eradicate that tradition tend to reinforce the positive value of tradition, and the negative connotations of 'invention'."
This quote shows that when the Soviet Union had the power, the Russian Orthodox people didn't have a chance to explore who they were religiously, because of the secularization of the USSR. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, religion was restored and Russian Orthodox people wanted to reestablish their faith, which meant that they relied on the Church's traditions and everything the religion had been through to guide them in reestablishing their faith.
"The strategic aims of ensuring national security in the sphere of culture are: the preservation and augmentation of traditional rossiiskoe spiritual and moral values as the foundation of rossiiskoe society."
This quote shows us that Putin believes there is a national identity that needs to be preserved in order for Rossiikoe people to have common values. He believes this is the foundation that will unite the Rossiiskoe people.
"After the Revolution, the number of angels in Natasha's house grew, while the Bolsheviks with Red bands flew in the sky. Natasha even had a favorite Bolshevik, he flew past her windows and swore lustily, but Natasha knew he was a good person. The angels, of course, were a little afraid of the Bolsheviks, but this one, Natasha's, they grew fond of, and kept watch for him at the window and whenever he appeared, they would run and fetch Natasha."
This quote, from the poem, Angels and Revolutions, is showing that the sky was once filled with religious figures, the angels, but since the Bolsheviks destroyed religion, they were the once who took over the angels' place in the sky, metaphorically. This quote is also showing that Natasha grew fond of a good Bolshevik which represents that people apart of the Bolshevik party were everywhere, even if you were against them, you were bound to find someone you knew (family or friend) that you didn't realize was a part of the party, which could morph your view of the Bolsheviks.
"It was not until sometime in the field that I observed how sources of Islamic knowledge were routinely treated, by non-practicing and practicing Tatars alike, as genuine indicators of religious identity."
This shows that de-unification of Islam in Russia. People practiced very differently. There is a difference between being Muslim, and following Islam as a religion.
"Compatriots abroad"
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Russians who had settled on the periphery of the Russian Republic of the Soviet Union found themselves "displaced abroad."
"The Yekaterinburg massacre has become one of the most shameful episodes in our history. By burying the remains of the innocent victims, we want to atone for the sins of our ancestors. Those who committed this crime are as guilty as are those who approved of it for decades. We are all guilty."
Yeltsin is explaining that not only are the people who did the killings guilty, but rather everyone who has thought it was okay throughout the generations since the massacre. He wants it to be clear that we remember these massacres not only to mourn, but also to reflect and understand that it wasn't just the fault of the killers, but everyone after them that supported it.
Know: 1) the major features of the "official historical narrative" concerning 1917 as recounted by ruling elites during Yeltsin's term as President in the 1990s; and 2) the major features of the Communist Party's (the "Popular Patriotic Opposition") narrative concerning the 1917 revolution during the 1990s. What distinguished these two narratives (and thus resulted in what Malinova termed "symbolic battles of the 1990s). What did their narratives have in common?
Yeltsin sees the events of 1917 as a moral mistake that society made, rather than a crime. The Communist Party saw it as a victory, and that the Bolsheviks saved Russia from the collapse. The narratives are similar in that neither of them saw the Revolution as a crime.
icon
a representation or image of a sacred personage, often considered sacred itself; an image or picture; a symbol.
During the centenary anniversary of Russia's 1917 revolutions in 2017, several points of contention regarding the memory, narrative, and evaluation of Russia's 1917 revolutions (February and October) emerged. These included, but were not limited to:
a) the history and evaluation of the Romanov dynasty—especially the reign of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra; b) the role that the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II played with respect to the course of subsequent events; c) the February Revolution, and the character and role of the Provisional Government that came to power after Nicholas II's abdication on March 2, 1917; d) the various political parties at the time, and their vision of the future of Russia as a state, nation and society; e) the Bolshevik assumption of power in October 1917 (its legitimacy or not), and the evaluation of the Communist Party's long-term agenda and policies; f) evaluation of the immediate aftermath of the October 17, including the Civil War, emigration, and forcible deportation, imprisonment, repressions, and execution of a large portion of Russia's educated elite, etc.; g) the trajectory of Bolshevik rule. Did Stalin chart a new course, or was his rule a continuation of the Communist Party vision and policies instituted by Lenin? h) identifying the main "tragedy" or "trauma" of the "Soviet experiment."
Ruling elite (namely Putin and the United Russia party)
• Focus of Russia's history/historical memory-narrative: thousand-year history of building and strengthening of Russia's statehood • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": 1917, interpreted broadly to include February and October, and the subsequent Civil War, emigration, and the collapse of the Soviet Union since it resulted in the geopolitical reality of millions of ethnic Russians becoming citizens of independent countries (i.e. in Ukraine, countries of Central Asia, the Baltic States, etc.), and resulted in confusion. • Positive aspects of period of Soviet rule: economic, military and cultural advances and accomplishments • Main negative features: the character of the ruling elite • Main triumph of the Soviet period (1917-1991): "the Great Patriotic War" and Russia's victory in that war • Re: repressions: acknowledgement and condemnation, without linking them with other historical events or individuals in the past; sometimes "bracketed" in the historical narrative (though not denied) • Main antagonists during Soviet period: "external enemies" and national "traitors" (among which Putin has been known to include members of the Bolshevik Party) • Main lesson of 1917: revolution is a negative phenomenon • Present in light of recent past: "reconciliation and concord," especially through common bond of patriotism; sovereignty and independence of post-Soviet Russia from foreign/global hegemonic forces are critical for process of nation's healing
Russian Orthodox Church [independent influential actor in the public sphere]
• Focus of its history/historical memory-narrative: "sacralizes narrative" by interpreting it in a biblical light—i.e. in terms of relationship between humans and God; emphasizes importance of peoples' religious and spiritual traditions (not just Orthodox, but includes all religions). With regard to its own history, emphasizes memory of trauma inflicted on believers and wiping out of Orthodox material culture and institutional church at center; emphasis on church and people; role of state minimized in the narrative • View of 1917: currently sees both February and October leading to the violence that characterized the Gulag regime of the 20th century; sees revolution as entirely negative since no society can be constructed on principles of violence and suffering • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": Civil War, World War II, sufferings of countless of believers of all faiths under atheist regime, and various emigrations (or expulsion) of millions of Russia's citizens abroad from 1917-1991 • Main protagonists: "the peoples" of Russia and the church (meaning institutional attempts to save pockets of faith communities during Soviet regime) • Main antagonist: atheist Soviet regime • Main lessons of 1917: importance of preservation of faith, spirituality, tradition for health of society; importance of remembering atrocities of "Soviet experiment" in order to prevent them from happening again
Political interest group "Izborsk" [a right wing "patriotic-traditionalist" interest group that was founded in 2012; their views overlap on certain points with both ruling party and with Communist Party; considered on right wing of the political spectrum]
• Focus of its history/historical memory-narrative: clash of civilizations, of which Russia has been a part already for several centuries; sees this clash in large part between supporters of Russia's sovereignty and its adversaries (namely, "the West"), who wish to weaken Russia as a sovereign, independent state • View of 1917: sees February Revolution and the Provisional Government that followed as a momentary "lapse in judgement," and the October Revolution as a turn the "traditional" path of development; sees continuity between Lenin's and Stalin's leadership • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": the Soviet Union's loss in the Cold War, and the dissolution of the Soviet communist system • View of repressions: does not consider these a trauma, in fact, often justifies them • Main protagonists: Lenin, Stalin • Main antagonist: "the West," "internal traitors," and, in part, "liberal-democrats" who voice negative views of history of Imperial Russia and Soviet Union • Main lesson of 1917: Russia needs to overcome the still existing divisions between the "Reds" (communist sympathizers) and the "Whites" (constitutional democrats or constitutional monarchists)
Political Party: "A Just Russia" [founded in 2006; positions itself between Putin's Party, United Russia, and Communist Party. Sees itself as a party of social democratic orientation, and also traces its roots to the legacy of "Great October"]
• Focus of its history/historical memory-narrative: juxtaposition of Soviet experience of socialism to "genuine" socialism, as a great liberating ideal, in contrast to "wild and inhuman capitalism" • View of 1917: Bolsheviks emerged as leaders because political elite at the time were divided, fighting among themselves • View of repressions: distinguishes between positive evaluation of October Revolution and subsequent crimes of Soviet regime • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": the Civil War and repressions that subsequently occurred during Stalin's regime • Main protagonists: Bolsheviks (despite errors made); masses who were inspired by socialist idea; President Putin • Main antagonists: the West and the elite during Soviet times who had only disdain for the masses] • Main lesson(s) of 1917: Russia not a country that can survive without strong leadership (positive rating of president imperative); revolutionary turmoil can be avoided if authorities carry out real—and not merely decorative—social and political reforms • Present in light of past: overcoming of past tragedies associated with negotiating unresolved divisions that caused Civil War and the trauma of repressions. Supports Putin's policy of "reconciliation and accord"
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
• Focus of its history/historical memory-narrative: loss of "golden age" of Soviet Union; historical memory narrative centers on the formation of the USSR, and the reasons for its collapse • View of 1917: distinguishes between the February revolution and "the Great October Revolution," which it sees as having saved Russia the ruin they believe the constitutional democratic parties at the time would have caused. Maintains that Soviet rule was established for the most part peacefully, and minimizes violence associated with it. • View of repressions: excludes the topic of political repressions, and focuses exclusively on USSR's achievements • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": associated with the unraveling of the Soviet Union, which the condemnation of the "cult of Stalin" initiated beginning in 1956 (following Stalin's death). • Main protagonists: Bolsheviks, esp. Lenin and Stalin, along with the Soviet people • Main antagonists: global capitalism, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, "liberals" • Main lesson(s) of 1917: on the one hand, speaks about the necessity of overcoming inequality and creation of just socio-economic system, yet at the same time currently supports the current government's aim of strengthening the country vis-à-vis the West (which, by definition, means embracing market economy) • Present in light of past: does not denounce idea the idea of revolution; yet, at the same time, insists on a peaceful and democratic transition from capitalism to a "renewed socialism"
Political Party "Yabloko" [Russian United Democratic Party; favors market economy, competition in politics and economy; strengthening rule of law. Among the more liberal parties in Russia; incorporated as a political party in 2001]
• Focus of its history/historical memory-narrative: reasons for the failure of democratization of Russia in the 20th century; focus in particular on October 1917 and the 1990s, and the parallels between the two • View of 1917: February Revolution offered the opportunity for genuine democratic reform; interprets the October (Bolshevik) Revolution as an armed revolt and criminal coup that led to a "dead end." Traces illegitimacy of Bolshevik regime to their disbanding the democratically-elected Constituent Assembly, which in turn generated a regime of terror that became a systemic feature of the Soviet state • The main "tragedy" or "trauma": the absence of a legitimate government throughout the Soviet era, which led to deep political, social, and cultural division, a Civil War, political repressions and exile of millions of citizens • Main protagonists: liberal-democrats of early 20th century Russia • Main antagonists: autocracy, Bolsheviks and ruling governing elites in post-Soviet Russia • Main lesson of 1917: despite apparent contemporary successes, autocracy in any form can only lead to dangerous social, political and economic decline; therefore, political modernization and a state founded on a constituent assembly is necessary.
