UC Berkeley GAIA Research Series

UC Berkeley GAIA Research Series Title Identities in Transition: Eastern Europe and Russia After the Collapse of Communism Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/22g1z9nw Journal Research Series, uciaspubs/research/93 Author Bonnell, Victoria Publication Date 1996 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Identities in Transition: Eastern Europe and Russia After the Collapse of Communism Edited by Victoria E. Bonnell Research Series / Number 93 IDENTITIES IN TRANSITION: EASTERN EUROPE AND RUSSIA AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM Victoria E. Bonnell, Editor CENTER FOR SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Identities in transition : Eastern Europe and Russia after the collapse of communism / Victoria E. bonnell, editor. p. cm. — (Research series ; no. 93) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-87725-193-2 (pbk.) 1. Group identity—Russia (Federation) 2. Group identity—Europe, Eastern. 3. Russia (Federation)—Social conditions—1991– 4. Europe, Eastern—Social conditions—1989– 5. Post-communism—Russia (Federation) 6. Post-communism—Europe, Eastern. I. Bonnell, Victoria E. II. Series: Research series (University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley. International and Area Studies) ; no. 93. HN530.2.A8134 1996 302.5’2—DC20 96-34137 CIP ©1996 by the Regents of the University of California Printed in the United States of America Cover painting: Untitled (1925–27), by Pavel Filonov (State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow) CONTENTS Preface vii Identities in Transition: An Introduction George W. Breslauer 1 Winners and Losers in Russia’s Economic Transition Victoria E. Bonnell 13 Post-Communist Transition and the Absent Middle Class in East-Central Europe Ákos Róna-Tas 29 “Democracy Without Women Is Not Democracy”: The Struggle over Women’s Status and Identity during Russia’s Transition Valerie Sperling 45 Women and the Negotiation of Identity in Post-Communist Eastern Europe Gail Kligman 68 Ethnoterritorial Units in the USSR and Successor States Yuri Slezkine 92 v vi Contents Nations, Regions, Mentalities: The Many Faces of Yugoslavia Veljko VujaœiŒ 103 Orthodoxy and National Identity in Russia John B. Dunlop 117 Religious Identities in Post-Communist Central Europe: The Polish Case Steven Stoltenberg 129 Stages of Political Identity Formation in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia Michael Urban 140 The Post-Communist Identity and East European Politics Marjorie Castle 155 Notes on Contributors 165 N PREFACE In the vast and contentious literature on the subject of identity, one thing is undisputed: the discourse on identity is a distinctively modern phenomenon, coinciding with the epochal changes that transformed agrarian into modern industrial societies. At the end of the twentieth century, people in most parts of the world have become conscious of their multiple identities pertaining to gender, class, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and membership in a political party or movement. For some, identity is “based on some ‘essence’ or set of core features shared by all members of the collectivity and no others.”1 Others view identity as a social construction. For them, socialization processes and the structures of society impose identities on individuals and groups or at least make them available. In the Communist era, the party-state provided a modicum of security for most people and, above all, a sense of identity. Personal and collective identities were established in Communist societies by various markers such as the individual’s name, nationality and ethnicity, geographic location, gender, education, occupation, and party membership. The authorities attempted to maintain strict control over the forms and expressions of identity, restricting them to a nar- row range and depriving citizens of the right to autonomous collective action based on shared identity. The collapse of communism has had profound repercussions for the identities of people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. During a short period, geographical boundaries have been redrawn and political, economic, social, and cultural institutions, ideologies, and practices have been fundamentally transformed. The reduction and then the elimination of party controls over informa- tion and association have precipitated an explosion of new possibilities for personal and collective identities. The “badges” of identity that for many decades served to place people in an elaborate system of stratification have been rapidly changing in the post-Communist era. For millions of people, the end of communism has also meant vii viii Preface the loss of former identities and the acquisition of new ones. For them, the world has been turned upside down. Post-Communist societies have vastly enlarged the possibilities for people to redefine their identity through new kinds of employ- ment (or unemployment), new types of organizations, new lifestyles, and new ideologies. Today, many people in the region are searching for new identities, but as the Russian scholar Alexander Etkind has observed, “Identities, like new shoes, do not always fit. People are still groping for a self they can be proud of or at least comfortable with.”2 How can we chart the formation of new identities among the people of Russia and Eastern Europe? In his monumental study of the English working class, Edward Thompson uses two criteria to establish the growth of what he calls class consciousness—but what we might just as well label collective identity—among workers in the first third of the nineteenth century. First, he looks for evidence that workers have a “consciousness of identity of interests among themselves and against the interests of other classes.” Second, he looks for “the growth of corresponding forms of political and industrial organization.”3 Thompson’s approach may be applied to the changing identities among Russians and East Europeans. It prompts us to look for evidence that people have begun to perceive in new ways their iden- tification with a group (based on nation, ethnicity, religion, gender, class, or politics) and to create and participate in corresponding organizations, such as a church, a political party, a women’s group, or a business organization. The essays in this volume grapple, in various ways, with the issues of personal and collective identity and the ways people have found to express their allegiances in post-Communist societies. The collection consists of parallel essays—dealing with Russia and East- ern Europe—on five themes relating to identities in transition: class, gender, nationality, religion, and politics. Each author was asked to provide the reader with an overview of the subject and to address the general questions: How and why have identities been changing in the post-Communist era and with what consequences? The essays in the volume were originally presented at a conference, Identities in Transition, held in April 1995 at the University of California, Berkeley. Organized by the Center for Slavic and East Preface ix European Studies, the conference was part of an ongoing effort to provide educational outreach for the benefit of teachers and the wider community. We are grateful to the Title VI Program of the U.S. Department of Education for support of the conference and partial support of this publication. Anna Wertz, Ph.D. candidate in the De- partment of History, ably provided editorial and production assis- tance. NOTES 1. Craig Calhoun, “Social Theory and the Politics of Identity,” in Social Theory and the Politics of Identity (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994), p. 13. 2. Alexander M. Etkind, “Psychological Culture,” in Russian Culture at the Crossroads: Paradoxes of Postcommunist Consciousness, ed. Dmitri N. Shalin (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), p. 122. 3. E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Pantheon, 1964), p. 194. IDENTITIES IN TRANSITION: AN INTRODUCTION George W. Breslauer This is a tricky subject to tackle. There are many different ap- proaches one could adopt, both to defining identities and to gener- alizing about them. Moreover, one could be addressing individual identities or collective identities, identities as solely a state of mind or identities as informing behavior.1 Whatever the definition we choose, we know that the collapse of Communist systems has re- sulted in a landscape in which many individual and collective identities are not only in transition, but also many of them are up for grabs. Diverse forces are competing to shape new identities and to capture the popular energies released by the embrace of new identities. In this volume, which concentrates on Russia and Eastern Europe, we read about the development of class consciousness and organization, about religious and ethnic identities and how these are being transformed and/or mobilized into politics, and about the development of gender roles and role consciousness during the trou- bled transformations in this part of the world.2 The purpose of this introduction is not to offer any especially profound insights about the specifics of these matters or about how they vary across countries in the region. That is the purpose of the interior chapters. Rather, I will introduce the volume by easing the reader into thinking about the nature and role of self and group identities in the post-Commu- nist context. DEFINITIONS AND TYPES OF IDENTITIES What do we mean by “identities”? Technically, we might be referring to “values, categories, symbols, markers, and worldviews 1 2 George W. Breslauer that people construct to make sense of their place in the world.”3 Less technically, identities answer the questions, “Who am I/are we?,” “What am I/are we?,” Who and what am I/are we not?,” and “What is my/our place in the larger social order of things?” When people ask these questions, they are inquiring into their individual and group identities.4 Note that these are questions entertained by human beings, not by lower forms of animals. Also, these questions require conscious thought.

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