DOCSLIB.ORG

It Takes a Union to Raise a Soviet: Children's Summer Camps As a Reflection of Late Soviet Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
It Takes a Union to Raise a Soviet: Children's Summer Camps As a Reflection of Late Soviet Society University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 It Takes A Union To Raise A Soviet: Children's Summer Camps As A Reflection Of Late Soviet Society Iuliia Skubytska University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Skubytska, Iuliia, "It Takes A Union To Raise A Soviet: Children's Summer Camps As A Reflection Of Late Soviet Society" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2935. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2935 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2935 For more information, please contact [email protected]. It Takes A Union To Raise A Soviet: Children's Summer Camps As A Reflection Of Late Soviet Society Abstract This dissertation examines the functioning of Soviet children’s summer camps throughout the period from 1953 to 1970. Researchers conceptualize these years marked by the rule of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev as the time of transformations of Soviet state and society. The goal of my project was to closely analyze how these transformations affected Soviet children using the example of children’s summer camps. Khrushchev’s ascendance to power changed summer camps from being the institutions which combined rest and education to purely educational ones. All the summer camps’ resources had to be mobilized to fulfill the task of Soviet children’s political indoctrination. Soviet leadership saw summer camps as ideal spaces that immersed children in a special way of life most appropriate for the future builders of communism. Typically for the USSR, by far not all the camps created this type of environment and routine for the young. Yet, there were model institutions, like Artek camp in the Crimea, which represented the Soviet vision of utopian children’s world that educated the younger generation as politically active Soviet citizens devoted to the Communist Party. Analyzing a unique body of sources that include archival records, oral history interviews, camp guidelines, diaries, and photographs I demonstrate that summer camps played an important role in Khrushchev’s reform of children’s education aimed at making manual labor a shared experience for all the Soviet youth. My research also highlights the paradoxes of this project. Owned by Soviet enterprises and organizations and administered by their trade unions, instead of creating a shared experience, summer camps reflected hierarchies that existed within the Soviet society between people belonging to different workplaces as well as between rural and urban populations. Run by trade union officials, summer camps also allow scholarso t examine the process of negotiation between the Communist Party, the Soviet state, and society over the model version of the Soviet childhood that summer camps had to create. I also see children as very important actors who shaped the work of summer camps by choosing to involve, disengage, or openly contest the way of living that these institutions involved them into. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Benjamin Nathans Keywords Artek, childhood, Khrushchev, oral history, trade unions, USSR Subject Categories European History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2935 IT TAKES A UNION TO RAISE A SOVIET: CHILDREN’S SUMMER CAMPS AS A REFLECTION OF LATE SOVIET SOCIETY Iuliia Skubytska A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation Graduate Group Chairperson ______________ _________________ Benjamin Nathans Benjamin Nathans Associate Professor of History Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Peter Holquist, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Associate Professor of History Kevin Platt, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities IT TAKES A UNION TO RAISE A SOVIET: CHILDREN’S SUMMER CAMPS AS A REFLECTION OF LATE SOVIET SOCIETY COPYRIGHT 2018 Iuliia Skubytska This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ For my parents III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this dissertation would have been impossible without the help of many people, whom I feel deeply indebted to. First and foremost, I would like to thank my adviser Benjamin Nathans for all the work he has put in guiding me through the challenges of the graduate school and dissertation writing process. Thank you for superb feedback that I received on my writing, thank you for challenging me, and thank you for always being there when I needed your support or advice. I could not have wished for a better adviser. Of course, the rest of my dissertation ncommittee has also contributed a great deal to the successful completion of my dissertation project. I would like to thank Kevin Platt for pushing me to think outside of the box and supporting my various academic initiatives. I am very grateful to Ann Farnsworth-Alvear for her sharp comments that helped me think about my topic in gloabl perspective and brought transnational aspect into my writing. Finally, I want to thank Peter Holquist for asking me big questions that helped me reflect on the place my project occupies in Soviet historiography. My committee has always stood by my side when it came to both academic and administrative matters. Under any circumstances, I knew that I could count on their advice, support, and understanding. The generous support from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences has been crucial for the successful completion of this dissertation project. As for the research process itself, the staff of the State Archive of Kharkiv Region, the Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine, the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, and the State Archive of the Russian Federation helped me access the countless sources that shaped the core of my dissertation and I am IV very grateful for their help. I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents Vladimir Skubitskii and Elena Skubitskaia for not only supporting me thoughout the research and writing process, but also for helping me find interviewees for my project. I would also like to thank Larisa Bugaenko and Natalia Martinkus, two of my interviewees who helped me as much as they could searching for people who were interested in telling me about their childhood. Without the help of Antonina Kanygina and Maria Protasevich, my stay in Moscow would have been much less enjoyable. Thank you for making this city feel like home. My passion for interdisciplinary research in the humanities developed when I was an undergraduate student at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy thanks to the incredible teaching of Oleksandr Ivashyna. Yet, I would have never even thought of applying to the graduate school in the US had I not taken a course at the University of Toronto with Lynn Viola. Lynn’s faith in me, as well as her amazing teaching have created a foundation for my pursuit of graduate-level education outside of Ukraine. Another important person, who guided me through the aplication process, helped me move to Philadelphia and start my life in the US is Jared McBride. He and his family welcomed me to the US and helped me adjust to this new country, when I arrived. Another family who welcomed me in a new place was the Ring family, whom I met through my graduate school friend Courtney Ring. I am very grateful to them for exposing me to American traditions and helping me develop a feeling of belonging to this country. The years 2013-2014 mark one of the most difficult periods of my life as I had to watch the development of war in Ukraine, my home country. The fact that I still managed to make progress as a graduate student during this time is largely due to the support of V Benjamin Nathans, Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Jonathan Steinberg, Roger Chartier, Courtney Ring, Andrea Thomson, Kelsey Salvensen, Kelsey Rice, and Evgenia Shnayder-Shoop. I am very grateful to them for understanding the difficulties I faced and helping me For their suggestions to read and proofread various parts of my dissertation, my thanks go to Courtney Ring, Kelsey Norris, Yakov Feygin, Hannah Anderson, Sarah Winsberg, Julia Kolchinsky-Dasbach, Veronica Aplenc, and Kelsey Rice. I would like to thank all of them for being wonderful friends and supportive colleagues. Throughout my research process Ilya Kukulin and Maria Mayofis were always ready to help me with various types of scholarly advice, and I am very grateful to them for being so generous in sharing their knowledge. My graduate student life in Philadelphia would have been bleak without the presence of Alissa Klots, Andrea Thomson, Courtney Doucette, Kelsey Salvensen, Evgenia Shnayder-Shoop, and Tina Irvine. In Ukraine, there was also a group of friends who have been encouraging me in my graduate school endeavor. I would like to thank Nadia Koval, Anna Pronskaia, Svetlana Tsurkan, Ilya Smolkin, Lilia Risovannaia, and Lidiya Lozova for helping me stay in touch with my homeland, supporting my scholarly work and making me forget about it for some time. Thank you. VI ABSTRACT IT TAKES A UNION TO RAISE A SOVIET: CHILDREN’S SUMMER CAMPS AS A REFLECTION OF LATE SOVIET SOCIETY Iuliia Skubytska Benjamin Nathans This dissertation examines the functioning of Soviet children’s summer camps throughout the period from 1953 to 1970. Researchers conceptualize these years marked by the rule of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev as the time of transformations of Soviet state and society.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Marine Mammal Conservation from Local to Global
    MARINE MAMMAL CONSERVATION FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL 29TH CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CETACEAN SOCIETY 23rd to 25th March, 2015 Intercontinental Hotel, St Julian’s Bay, MALTA USEFUL INFORMATION VENUE – INTERCONTIMENTAL MALTA HOTEL, ST JULIANS Conference Hall, Cettina De Cesare (CDC), is in hotel. Paranga Beach Club is on the water edge in St George’s Bay. 29th ECS Conference, Malta i USEFUL INFORMATION CONTACT NUMBERS Direct Dialling Code for Malta: +356 International Code (to make an overseas call): 00 Emergency number: 112 Police: 21 22 40 01 … 21 22 40 07 Mater-Dei Hospital (Malta): 25 45 00 00 Malta International Airport (General Inquiries): 21 24 96 00 Malta International Airport (Flight Information): 52 30 20 00 (each call: € 1.00) Passport Office: 21 22 22 86 WEBSITES Malta International Airport (note one ‘a’ between Malta and Airport!) Malta’s weather www.maltairport.com/weather Arrivals www.maltairport.com/arrivals Departures www.maltairport.com/departures Activities in Malta www.visitmalta.com 29th ECS Conference, Malta ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS HOSTED BY The Biological Conservation Research Foundation (BICREF) The NGO BICREF was set-up in 1998 to promote conservation research and awareness in Malta. For this purpose it welcomes Internships in Malta; the next call starts immediately after the ECS conference 2015 and to last till the end of summer 2015. Options for taking up courses or training in marine conservation biology, cetacean and fisheries research are also possible. Dr. Adriana Vella, Ph.D (Cantab.), founder of BICREF, is a conservation biologist with experience in mammal and marine conservation research at local and regional level.
    [Show full text]
  • Incidents of Discrimination in Russian Football 2015 - 2017
    A Changing Picture: Incidents of Discrimination in Russian Football 2015 - 2017 1 www.farenet.org Contents Introduction 4 Statistical overview 10 Banners 12 2015-16 12 2016-17 21 Other visual displays at matches 27 2015-16 27 2016-17 31 Football chants 32 2015-16 32 2016-17 34 Incidents on the pitch 35 Large images and inscriptions in urban spaces 36 2015-16 36 2016-17 38 Attacks 40 2015-16 40 2016-17 41 Assistance to far-right politicians and football supporters injured in fights 42 Imprint: 2015-16 42 Published in June. 2017, by SOVA 2016-17 43 Center for Information and Analysis, and the Fare network Other examples of neo-Nazi and xenophobic displays in football 44 www.sova-center.ru www.farenet.org 2015-16 44 2016-17 46 About 50 2 3 www.farenet.org A Changing Picture: Incidents of discrimination in Russian Football 2015 - 17 Introduction Nature of far-right manifestations in past two years, we have not recorded a single Russian football case of a Swastika put up in the stands. In some cases, banners with the Teiwaz, Odal, Most of the recorded cases of far-right Sig, Algiz and Yr runes as well as the neo- propaganda involved displaying the Teiwaz, Nazi numerical code 88 were not allowed at Odal, Sig, Algiz and Yr runes used in Nazi football venues. Germany and associated with its ideology (slogans written in runic script, but not A few professional clubs have become more containing these specific runes are not vigilant and more prepared to take action This study of discrimination, including racism, nationalism, included in our report).
    [Show full text]
  • Physical Culture and Sports in the USSR and Soviet Kazakhstan in 1940-1980
    Opción, Año 35, Especial No.19 (2019): 2337-2365 ISSN 1012-1587/ISSNe: 2477-9385 Physical Culture and Sports in the USSR and Soviet Kazakhstan in 1940-1980 Zauresh Galimzhanovna Saktaganova1, Aleksandr Anatolievich Grigorkevich1, Zhanna Sabitbekovna Mazhitova2, Assem Serikovna Sagatova3, Saule Suyundykovna Kassimova3 1Karaganda State University named after E.A. Buketov, 100028, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, Universitetskaya Street, 28 2University of Astana, 010000, Astana, Kazakhstan, Abai Street, 13 3Karaganda State Technical University, 100028, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, Mira Boulevard, 56 Abstrac The present article considers the problems of physical culture and sports in the Soviet history. It emphasizes the fact that physical culture and sports had a complicated history. In the pre-war period, sports were considered to serve a narrow utilitarian purpose of establishing healthy society via doing exerci- ses and training bold fighters for the bright new dawn of communism. Later, sports were perceived as one of the key components of social and political life – an effective means to increase labor productivity and bring up a stron- ger next generation. Analyzing the government actions on establishing sports infrastructure, the authors conclude that physical culture and sports in the USSR and Soviet Kazakhstan transformed into an independent area of cultural development. The conclusion states that high achievements in conventional sports were to prove the benefits of living in a socialist country to its citizens and the rest of the world. In turn, such a circumstance led to the disregard of sports peculiarities of Kazakhstan and the gradual fallback of national sports. Keywords: Soviet history, physical culture, sports, Soviet Kazakhstan, national sports. 2338 Zauresh Galimzhanovna Saktaganova et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Organized Crime and the Russian State Challenges to U.S.-Russian Cooperation
    Organized Crime and the Russian State Challenges to U.S.-Russian Cooperation J. MICHAEL WALLER "They write I'm the mafia's godfather. It was Vladimir Ilich Lenin who was the real organizer of the mafia and who set up the criminal state." -Otari Kvantrishvili, Moscow organized crime leader.l "Criminals Nave already conquered the heights of the state-with the chief of the KGB as head of a mafia group." -Former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin.2 Introduction As the United States and Russia launch a Great Crusade against organized crime, questions emerge not only about the nature of joint cooperation, but about the nature of organized crime itself. In addition to narcotics trafficking, financial fraud and racketecring, Russian organized crime poses an even greater danger: the theft and t:rafficking of weapons of mass destruction. To date, most of the discussion of organized crime based in Russia and other former Soviet republics has emphasized the need to combat conven- tional-style gangsters and high-tech terrorists. These forms of criminals are a pressing danger in and of themselves, but the problem is far more profound. Organized crime-and the rarnpant corruption that helps it flourish-presents a threat not only to the security of reforms in Russia, but to the United States as well. The need for cooperation is real. The question is, Who is there in Russia that the United States can find as an effective partner? "Superpower of Crime" One of the greatest mistakes the West can make in working with former Soviet republics to fight organized crime is to fall into the trap of mirror- imaging.
    [Show full text]
  • Hybrid Warfare and the Protection of Civilians in Ukraine
    ENTERING THE GREY-ZONE: Hybrid Warfare and the Protection of Civilians in Ukraine civiliansinconflict.org i RECOGNIZE. PREVENT. PROTECT. AMEND. PROTECT. PREVENT. RECOGNIZE. Cover: June 4, 2013, Spartak, Ukraine: June 2021 Unexploded ordnances in Eastern Ukraine continue to cause harm to civilians. T +1 202 558 6958 E [email protected] civiliansinconflict.org ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION AND VISION Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the protection of civilians in conflict. CIVIC envisions a world in which no civilian is harmed in conflict. Our mission is to support communities affected by conflict in their quest for protection and strengthen the resolve and capacity of armed actors to prevent and respond to civilian harm. CIVIC was established in 2003 by Marla Ruzicka, a young humanitarian who advocated on behalf of civilians affected by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Honoring Marla’s legacy, CIVIC has kept an unflinching focus on the protection of civilians in conflict. Today, CIVIC has a presence in conflict zones and key capitals throughout the world where it collaborates with civilians to bring their protection concerns directly to those in power, engages with armed actors to reduce the harm they cause to civilian populations, and advises governments and multinational bodies on how to make life-saving and lasting policy changes. CIVIC’s strength is its proven approach and record of improving protection outcomes for civilians by working directly with conflict-affected communities and armed actors. At CIVIC, we believe civilians are not “collateral damage” and civilian harm is not an unavoidable consequence of conflict—civilian harm can and must be prevented.
    [Show full text]
  • In March 1972 the Leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet
    MueRecognitionller in Return for Détente? Recognition in Return for Détente? Brezhnev, the EEC, and the Moscow Treaty with West Germany, 1970–1973 ✣ Wolfgang Mueller Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-pdf/13/4/79/697792/jcws_a_00167.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 In March 1972 the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Leonid Brezhnev, unexpectedly suggested that the Soviet Union might be willing to recognize the European Economic Community (EEC). Until that point, the Soviet Union had refused to recognize the EEC and had regularly and vigorously attacked it as a “community of monopolists” and a stalking horse for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Brezhnev’s predecessor, Nikita Khrushchev, had conveyed similar signals re- garding possible recognition in 1962, but he never turned the idea into reality. In contrast, some ten years later, Brezhnev inspired the start of negotiations between the EEC and the Soviet bloc’s Council of Mutual Economic Assis- tance (CMEA). This article draws on Soviet archival documents as well as Western and Russian publications and memoirs to analyze the background, circumstances, and consequences of Brezhnev’s initiative. The article gives special attention to the following questions: What convinced Brezhnev and his colleagues in 1972 to change their hitherto uniformly negative assessment of the EEC? Was this change the result of a major policy reassessment or simply a byproduct of other considerations? How was the initiative linked with broader Soviet foreign policy goals? Why was it not ultimately successful? In answering these questions, the article traces the external and internal factors that inspired the Soviet initiative, including the EEC enlargement process, East-West détente, CMEA integra- tion, Ostpolitik, and Soviet and East European economic and political develop- ments.
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Youth on the March: the All-Union Tours of Military Glory, 1965–87
    This is a repository copy of Soviet Youth on the March: The All-Union Tours of Military Glory, 1965–87. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/96606/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Hornsby, R (2017) Soviet Youth on the March: The All-Union Tours of Military Glory, 1965–87. Journal of Contemporary History, 52 (2). pp. 418-445. ISSN 0022-0094 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009416644666 © 2016, The Author. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Contemporary History. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Soviet Youth on the March: the All-Union Tours of Military Glory, 1965-87 ‘To the paths, friends, to the routes of military glory’1 The first train full of young people pulled into Brest station from Moscow at 10.48 on the morning of 18 September 1965.
    [Show full text]
  • Counter-Intelligence in a Command Economy
    Counter-Intelligence in a Command Economy Mark Harrison* Department of Economics and CAGE, University of Warwick Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University Inga Zaksauskienė** Faculty of History, Vilnius University Abstract We provide the first thick description of the counter-intelligence function in a command economy of the Soviet type. Based on documentation from Soviet Lithuania, the paper considers the KGB (secret police) as a market regulator, commissioned to prevent the disclosure of secret government business and forestall the disruption of government plans. Where market regulation in open societies is commonly intended to improve market transparency, competition, and fair treatment of consumers and employees, KGB regulation was designed to enforce secrecy, monopoly, and discrimination. One consequence of KGB regulation of the labour market may have been adverse selection for talent. We argue that the Soviet economy was designed to minimize the costs. Keywords: communism, command economy, discrimination, information, loyalty, regulation, security, surveillance, Soviet Union. JEL Codes: N44, P21. * Mail: Department of Economics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Email: [email protected]. ** Mail: Universiteto g. 7, LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania. Email: [email protected]. First draft: 26 April 2013. This version: 11 December 2014. Counter-Intelligence in a Command Economy Data Appendix Table
    [Show full text]
  • The Slavic Vampire Myth in Russian Literature
    From Upyr’ to Vampir: The Slavic Vampire Myth in Russian Literature Dorian Townsend Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Languages and Linguistics Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of New South Wales May 2011 PLEASE TYPE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname or Family name: Townsend First name: Dorian Other name/s: Aleksandra PhD, Russian Studies Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar: School: Languages and Linguistics Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences Title: From Upyr’ to Vampir: The Slavic Vampire Myth in Russian Literature Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) The Slavic vampire myth traces back to pre-Orthodox folk belief, serving both as an explanation of death and as the physical embodiment of the tragedies exacted on the community. The symbol’s broad ability to personify tragic events created a versatile system of imagery that transcended its folkloric derivations into the realm of Russian literature, becoming a constant literary device from eighteenth century to post-Soviet fiction. The vampire’s literary usage arose during and after the reign of Catherine the Great and continued into each politically turbulent time that followed. The authors examined in this thesis, Afanasiev, Gogol, Bulgakov, and Lukyanenko, each depicted the issues and internal turmoil experienced in Russia during their respective times. By employing the common mythos of the vampire, the issues suggested within the literature are presented indirectly to the readers giving literary life to pressing societal dilemmas. The purpose of this thesis is to ascertain the vampire’s function within Russian literary societal criticism by first identifying the shifts in imagery in the selected Russian vampiric works, then examining how the shifts relate to the societal changes of the different time periods.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Looking Back at Brezhnev
    russian history 41 (2014) 299-306 brill.com/ruhi Introduction Looking Back at Brezhnev Peter Rutland Wesleyan University [email protected] Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock Wesleyan University [email protected] In the West, the Soviet Union is most often viewed through the Cold War lens of capitalist triumph over socialist decline and failure. Rather than take seri- ously the communist challenge to capitalist modernity, the Soviet project is presented as a historical dead-end, a doomed experiment that collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. The Soviet Union – the story goes – was ruled by a stultified bureaucracy under which citizens enjoyed limited per- sonal freedom and dissidents were ruthlessly persecuted. The attempt to build a centrally-planned economy on principles antithetical to the market led to colossal inefficiency and stagnant growth. Moscow’s competition with the United States for global hegemony brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and fueled bitter conflicts from Afghanistan to Angola. The system’s survival depended on stringent controls on communication with the outside world. Russians, of course, have a more complicated relationship to their own past. Even as the historical legacies of Lenin and Stalin, Khrushchev and Gorbachev, remain contentious, the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary from 1964 to 1982, is often portrayed as something of a golden age.1 The papers gathered here were originally presented at a conference “What Was the Soviet Union? Looking back at the Brezhnev years,” held at Wesleyan University on 20–21 October 2011. 1 See Otto Boele, “Remembering Brezhnev in the New Millennium: Post-Soviet Nostalgia and Local Identity in the City of Novorossiisk,” The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 38 (2011): 3–29, as well as the theme issue on the “long 1970s” in the Russian journal Neprikosnovennyi zapas 52 (2007).
    [Show full text]
  • THE LAND WARFARE PAPERS Perestroika and Soviet Military
    THE LAND WARFARE PAPERS No.5 OCTOBER 1990 Perestroika and Soviet Military Personnel By Robert B. Davis A National Security Affairs Paper Published on Occasion by THE INSTITUTE OF LAND WARFARE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY Arlington, Virginia PERESTROIKA AND SOVIET MILITARY PERSONNEL by Robert B. Davis THE INSTITUTE OF LAND WARFARE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY AN AUSA INSTITUTE OF LAND WARFARE PAPER In 1988 the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) established within its existing organization a new entity known as the Institute of Land Warfare. Its purpose is to extend the educational work of AUSA by sponsoring scholarly publications, to include books, monographs and essays on key defense issues, as well as workshops and symposia. A work selected for publication as a Land Warfare Paper represents research by the author which, in the opinion of the editorial board, will contribute to a better understanding of a particular defense or national security issue. Publication as an AUSA Institute of Land Warfare Paper does not indicate that the Association of the United States Army agrees with everything in the paper, but does suggest that AUSA believes the paper will stimulate the thinking of AUSA members and others concerned about important defense issues. LAND WARFARE PAPER NO. S, OCTOBER 1990 Perestroika and Soviet Military Personnel by Robert B. Davis Mr. Robert B. Davis is a research psychologist with the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. Davis received his undergraduate degree from Arkansas College and his advanced degree from Troy State University, Alabama.
    [Show full text]
  • OLGA GRADINARU ”Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca
    JOURNAL OF ROMANIAN LITERARY STUDIES Issue no. 4/2014 OLGA GRADINARU ”Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca DEATH REPRESENTATION IN THE SOVIET NOVEL OF WORLD WAR 2 Abstract: Abstract. The main focus of the paper is to present briefly the issue of representation in literature and its specificity in the context of the social, political and ideological mutations of the newly established Soviet State and of World War 2. While the principles and the main stages of the Socialist Realism are highlighted, they are also wrapped in and intermingled with various aspects of war ideology regarding the Soviet war prose. The analyzed Soviet novel is A. Fadeyev’s The Young Guard as a representative of the romantic perspective on war and on heroism, supporting the idea of daily heroic deed and heroic death in the established tradition of Soviet reality depiction. Keywords: Death Representation, Soviet Novel, World War 2, War Ideology, Socialist Realism. 1. Brief Introduction The analysis of the Soviet literature belonging to Socialist Realism must start with the fact that culture was considered submissive to the political ideology of the Soviet State, having to mirror the new social ideals, realities and desires of the propaganda. On the other hand, this ideological intrusion is far from being a one way street phenomenon, as most ideological, political ideas come from Russian intelligentsia1. Art and literature were subject to censorship with the duty to guard the proper reflection of the Soviet reality or, in other words, to dictate the desirable politicized ideological reality in order to serve to the main aim – educating the masses for becoming great devoted citizens in a context of large social, political and national changes.
    [Show full text]