“Anti-Sovietism” Among the Students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute after the 20th Congress of the CPSU
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2018.3.329Keywords:
20th Congress of the CPSU; Thaw; Soviet person; mass social and political consciousness; Ural Polytechnic Institute; Soviet students; Arthur NemelkovAbstract
Referring to documents of the Komsomol and regional party organisations, this article considers qualitative changes in the mass political consciousness of the Soviet people caused by Stalin’s departure from the historical arena and the 20th Congress of the CPSU. The author focuses on materials of the Komsomol Conference of the Kirov Ural Polytechnic Institute held in the autumn of 1956, which had a deep resonance because of a “slanderous anti-Soviet and anti-party” speech delivered by Arthur Nemilkov, a fourth-year student of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. This event was one of a few similar incidents that took place in other universities, research institutions, schools, and industrial enterprises of the USSR. The archival documents, mostly consisting of party protocols and Komsomol records, testify to a contradiction in the development of public consciousness. On the one hand, it was characterised by stereotypical thinking and the use of Communist rhetoric, and, on the other, by shifts in public and political activity, especially those of Soviet youth. The ideological and mental transformations of the Thaw period are actualised as a forerunner of dissident discourse in the intellectual environment of Soviet society. Additionally, the article raises questions about the values of the Soviet citizen and the devaluation of traditional rituals introduced by the authorities with the aim of involving citizens in the official ideology and turning them into homo soveticus.
References
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Dubin, B. (2003). Budni i prazdniki [Weekdays and Holidays]. In Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniyа. Dannye. Analiz. Diskussii. No. 2 (68), pp. 52–62.
Egorov, Yu. V., Kruzhalov, A. V., Polupanova, T. I., Puzako, V. D. Rudnitskayа, T. G. (Comp.). (2009). Ostanovit’syа, oglyаnut’syа… (k 60-letiyu fiziko-tekhnicheskogo fakul’teta) [To Stop and Look around. For the 60th Anniversary of the Faculty of Physics and Technology]. Yekaterinburg, Izdatel’stvo Uchebno-metodicheskogo tsentra Ural’skogo politekhnicheskogo instituta. 227 p.
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Kara-Murza, S. G. (2002). “Sovok” vspominaet svoyu zhizn’ [“Sovok” Remembers his Life]. Moscow, Algoritm. 61 p.
Kozlov, V. A. (1999). Massovye besporyаdki v SSSR pri Khrushcheve i Brezhneve (1953 – nachalo 1980-kh gg.) [Mass Riots in the USSR under Khrushchev and Brezhnev (1953 – Early 1980s)]. Novosibirsk, Sibirskii khronograf. 416 p.
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Nemelkov, A. Iz vospominanii. UPI. 1956 g. [Arthur Nemelkov. Excerpts from Memoirs. Ural Polytechnic Institute. 1956]. In Samizdat [website]. URL: http://samlib.ru/b/bondarewskij_l/nemelkov.shtml (mode of access: 13.07.2017).
Postanovlenie TsK KPSS o preodolenii kul’ta lichnosti i ego posledstvii. 30 iyunya 1956 g. [Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU on Overcoming the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences. 30 June 1956]. In 100 glavnykh dokumentov Rossiiskoi istorii [website]. URL: http://doc.histrf.ru/20/postanovlenie-tsk-kpss-o-preodolenii-kultalichnosti-i-ego-posledstviy/ (mode of access: 15.07.2017).
Prishchepa, A. I. (1989). Inakomyslie na Urale [Dissent in the Urals]. Surgut, Izdatel’skii tsentr Surgutskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 280 p.
Pyzhikov, A. (2000). XX s’’ezd i obshchestvennoe mnenie [The 20th Congress and Public Opinion]. In Svobodnayа mysl’. No. 8, pp. 76–85.
Pyzhikov, A. (2003). Istoki dissidentstva. Mololezh’ posle XX c’’ezda KPSS [The Origins of Dissidence. Youth after the 20th Congress of the CPSU]. In Svobodnayа mysl’ – XXI. No. 12, pp. 77–85.
Pyzhikov, A. (2003). Sotsial’no-psikhologicheskie aspekty obshchestvennoi zhizni v gody “ottepeli” [Social and Psychological Aspects of Public Life in the Years of the Thaw]. In Svobodnayа mysl’ – XXI. No. 6, pp. 103–110.
Rusina, Yu. A. (2009). “Vskhody” inakomysliyа v sovetskikh vuzakh (na primere Ural’skogo gosuniversiteya imeni A. M. Gor’kogo) [“Sprouts” of Dissent in Soviet Universities (with Reference to Gorky Ural State University)]. In Ural v zerkale tysyаcheletii. 2 Books. Yekaterinburg, Bank kul’turnoi informatsii. Book 2, pp. 236–247.
Rusina, Yu. A. (2017). Fenomen inakomysliyа v praktikakh sovetskoi individualizatsii v vysshei shkole 1940-kh – 1950-kh godov [The Phenomenon of Dissent in the Practices of Soviet Individualisation in Higher Education in the 1940s–1950s]. In Istoricheskayа rusistika v XXI veke. Knigi po rusistike. XLII. Budapesht, Russica Pannonicana, pp. 350–
Shalaeva, N. V. (2013). Sovetskii gosudarstvennyi prazdnik kak mekhanizm formirovaniyа reprezentativnogo obraza vlasti i sotsiokul’turnoi kommunikatsii v 1917–1920-e gg. [Soviet State Holidays as a Mechanism for the Formation of a Representative Image of Power and Socio-Cultural Communication between 1917 and the 1920s]. In Vlast’. No. 1, pp. 132–136.
Shcherbinin, A. I. (1998). Total’nayа indoktrinatsiyа: u istokov sistemy. Politicheskie prazdniki i igry [Total Indoctrination: At the Roots of the System. Political Holidays and Games]. In Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniya. No. 5, pp. 79–96.
Shcherbinin, A. I. (2014). Politicheskii prazdnik: kontsept i kommunikatsiyа [Political Holidays. Concept and Communication]. In Politicheskayа kontseptologiyа: zhurnal metadistsiplinarnykh issledovanii. No. 3, pp. 45–59.
Shumikhina, L. A., Popova, V. N. (2012). Estetika paradov i demonstratsii kak prazdnichnykh ritualov sovetskoi kul’tury [The Aesthetics of Parades and Demonstrations as Festive Rituals of Soviet Culture]. In Teoriyа i praktika obshchestvennogo razvitiyа. No. 5, pp. 203–208.
Shun’ko E. Artur Nemelkov. Esse. [Arthur Nemelkov. Essay]. In Samizdat [website]. URL: http://samlib.ru/b/bondarewskij_l/shunko.shtml (mode of access: 15.08.2017).
Studencheskie brozheniyа v SSSR (konets 1956 g.). Arkhivnye dokumenty [The Student Intellectual Ferment in the USSR (Late 1956). Archival Documents]. (1997). In Voprosy istorii. No. 1, pp. 20–21.
Taranov, E. (1993). Raskachaem Leninskie gory [Let us Shake the Lenin Hills]. In Svobodnayа mysl’. No. 3, pp. 99–101.
TsDOOSO [Centre for the Documentation of Social Organisations of Sverdlovsk Region]. Stock 4. List 55. Dos. 64; Stock 161. List 27. Dos. 4, 11; Stock 1910. List 5. Dos. 11; Stock 4689. List 2. Dos. 9, 10, 11.
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Published
2018-09-30
How to Cite
Rusina, Y. (2018). “Anti-Sovietism” Among the Students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute after the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Quaestio Rossica, 6(3), 797–814. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2018.3.329
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Problema voluminis
