Language, Historiography and Economy in Late- and Post-Soviet Leningrad
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Language, Historiography and Economy in late- and post-Soviet Leningrad: “the Entire Soviet People Became the Authentic Creator of the Fundamental Law of their Government.” Xenia A. Cherkaev Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2015 © 2015 Xenia A. Cherkaev All Rights Reserved Abstract: Language, Historiography and Economy in late- and post-Soviet Leningrad: “the Entire Soviet People Became the Authentic Creator of the Fundamental Law of their Government.” Xenia A. Cherkaev This dissertation is about holes. It begins by analyzing the proverbial “hole in the fence” at late-Soviet enterprises: the way that workers pragmatically employed the planned economy's distribution rules by actions that were both morally commendable and questionably legal. It then analyzes the omission of this hole in perestroika economic analysis, which devoted surprisingly little attention to enterprises' central role in providing welfare and exerting social control, or to employees' pragmatic employment of the enterprises' rules. This analytic hole is compounded by a historiographic one: by the omission of the post-1956 omission of Stalin's name from public mention. Framing the perestroika reforms against “Stalinism,” perestroika-era texts typically trace the start of de-Stalinization to Khrushchev's “Cult of Personality” speech, after which Stalin's name disappeared from textbooks; rather than to the post-1953 reforms that fundamentally restructured labor, economic and punitive institutions to create characteristically late-Soviet methods of retaining and motivating labor: including the widespread disciplinary lenience that allowed workers to pragmatically employ enterprise rules. Precluded by this historiography from seeing how late-Soviet institutions had evolved in the post-Stalin absence of forced labor laws and how they practically functioned, popular and expert analysis instead tended to analyze citizens' relationships to the state in subjective terms: as a question of stagnant mindsets and loss of faith. Defined by its non-complicit denouncement of a retrospectively posited “Stalinist” state, the subject position taken by this analysis precluded speakers from seeing the presence behind all these holes: from seeing how they had practically constructed themselves and the late-Soviet system by pursuing their own economic, social and political goals through its institutions. The perestroika reform laws that were justified by this analysis intended to “speed up” society by intervening in workers' and citizens' feelings of ownership and responsibility. But, lacking a practical understanding of how late-Soviet institutions functioned, they instead quickly crashed the economy. Table of Contents List of Illustrations--------------------------------------------------------------- iv Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Chapter 1: Nesun----------------------------------------------------------------- 23 synopsis---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 1: Alcohol, outdoor sport and the Physics institute. ------------------------------------------ 26 2: Workers' relationship to the Plan; or, “you have of what you guard.” ------------------- 33 3: Scale of condemnation; or, “Did you swipe stainless at the plant?” -------------------- 42 4: Economic crimes vs. the price of a bottle. -------------------------------------------------- 59 Chapter 2. Letun ---------------------------------------------------------------- 72 Part I. Proper embedding. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 72 Part II. Moral obtaining. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 77 1: things. --------------------------------------- 77 2: information.--------------------------------- 87 part III. Social control. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 99 i Chapter 3. Buried in Plain Sight ---------------------------------------------113 1: Three missing years and the omission of Stalin. ------------------------------------------114 2: Institutional reform. --------------------------------------------------------------------------121 3: Concern with the Form and with Truth. ----------------------------------------------------124 4: “One branching systemic root, identified as Stalinism.” -------------------------------- 129 5: Denouncing Them in favor of natural freedom. ------------------------------------------134 Chapter 4. Ownerly Attitude ---------------------------------------------- 143 1: the theory. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------144 2: the laws. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------152 3: the practice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------155 4: Group egoism in the grand economic experiment. ----------------------------------------167 Chapter 5. “It had nothing to do with Marxism!” ---------------------- 178 Part I: Tenacious Truths. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 173 Part II. Surprising stability. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 194 1: in search of a national idea. ------------------194 2: The informational war. -----------------------201 3: Putin and his Insolent Horde. ----------------206 Part III: One can only be defined by what one is, not by what one isn't. -----------------213 ii Bibliography ---------------------------------------- 218 Appendix-------------------------------------------- 247 iii List of Illustrations Glass flower – 24 Glass plates – 25 Knitting hook – 27 Knitting needle – 28 Ski tow lift hooks – 29 Axe head – 30 External backpack frames – 31 Kayak – 31 Kayak carcass – 32 Drill 1 – 36 Drill 2 – 37 Knife with flower handle – 37 Glass figures: hedgehog, crocodile, carafe, demon, rose – 38 Metal-parts candleholder – 38 2-volume samizdat lyrics compilation – 41 Trapeze bar – 42 Kayak carcass construction guide – 45 Bukashka belay devices – 47 iv Alpinism gear marked to attribute authorship – 47 Alpinism gear stamped “100 kHz” – 48 Vise – 49 Frying pan with stainless steel handle – 50 3 knives – 51 Sauerkraut tub – 51 Sauerkraut tub, inside – 52 Brass nozzle connector – 52 Stainless steel tombstones – 53 Flask – 57 Miniature knitting needles – 58 Copper and ebonite candleholder – 58 Taxidermied penguin – 67 Photographs of writers – 96 Union resolution 1 – 105 Union resolution 2 – 106 1977 street poster – 114 Campaign posters aimed at youth – 197 Campaign posters aimed at adults – 198 v Acknowledgments I will always be grateful to Columbia University for supporting my graduate education, to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for supporting my dissertation fieldwork, and to the Anthropology Department for supporting my last write-up year. An anthropology dissertation takes a long time to write. I'm 32 years old, and I am grateful for having been allowed to live the last quarter of my life in this way, looking for holes. I am grateful for having been accepted to study at Columbia University's Anthropology department, for having been taught in its classes and welcomed into its intellectual community of talks, seminars and workshops; and for the University's beautiful and seemingly bottomless libraries, where I was delighted to spend years and where this dissertation was structured, written and re-written. I am grateful to my advisers and friends in the department, who over the past eight years have taught me to think: Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Rosalind C. Morris, Paul Kockelman, and Claudio Lomnitz. I'm grateful that Beth taught me to look at the world in terms of language games and axis points of reason; and that Roz taught me to pay attention to detail. To Paul, I'm grateful for many things, summarized by this one sentence: “there are too many things that we actually don't know to waste time pretending not to know what we do” (or something like that). And to Claudio I'm grateful for his amazing ability to reframe a text with one sentence, which takes you perpendicular to where you had assumed you were going. I'm grateful to Mick Taussig for teaching me to see sacred secrets in everyday life. vi To Marilyn Astwood, Juana Cabrera and Michael Chin, who work in the Anthropology Department office, I am grateful for their logistical support and their friendship: my life would have been complicated and boring without them. I want to thank E. Valentine Daniel, Brinkley M. Messick, Ana Miljanic for having acted as discussants on the three chapters of this dissertation that were presented at the Sheldon Scheps Writing Workshop. I am grateful to Val for the image of speakers on swings; to Brink for emphasizing humor; to Ana for likening my writing to a packed city bus, and pointing out how much hinges on the audacity to say: “I swear this is true.” I am grateful to Katherine Verdery, for her comments as this dissertation's external examiner, and for her foundational work on late-Socialism. And to Bruce Grant for having taken the time to talk to me about my work as it developed over the years: for his insight, references, suggestions and kindness. Tatiana Chudakova I want to thank for showing me a part of Russia that I would not have otherwise seen: the time I spent around Ulan Ude continues to lurk behind my understanding