Fear and Childhood Victimisation in Atheistic Discourse during the Khrushchev Era

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.4.641

Keywords:

N. S. Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign, victimhood, fear, Central Russia, Soviet childhood

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the interpretative potential of anti-religious propaganda during the Thaw period through the lens of emotional narrative. The author suggests considering the use of the victimised image of religious children as means for evoking the public’s censure during Khrushchev’s antireligious campaign. This atheistic campaign was carried out mostly by means of discrediting believers, contrasting them with social norms and the image of the ideal Soviet citizen, a builder of communism. Images of child-martyrs are archetypical in Russian culture; they were often used in stories about Young Pioneer heroes, as well as in visual propaganda during the Great Patriotic War. According to the Soviet media, religious upbringings were based on intimidation; as a result, a sense of fear affected the child’s personality. The key components of the image of religious children have been reconstructed through the prism of narratives and pictures in the press, films, letters to the media, ideological books, and handbooks. Sociological surveys of Soviet children and letters of the Soviet people demonstrate that the stereotypes of fearful religious children were quite effective. Studying taboo emotions makes it possible to understand the “emotional scope” of Soviet propaganda in a more profound way, as well as to identify the formation of the “emotional component” of the “the Other”. Geographically, the research covers central Russia – the region which was given much attention by the media due to a historical legacy that appealed to the concept of Holy Rus’.

Author Biography

Galina Egorova

PhD (History), Research Fellow, International Laboratory ‘Russia’s Regions in Historical Perspective’, HSE University. 

20, Myasnitskaya Str., 101000, Moscow, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0001-8557-0288

gsegorova@hse.ru

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Published

2021-12-22

How to Cite

Egorova, G. (2021). Fear and Childhood Victimisation in Atheistic Discourse during the Khrushchev Era. Quaestio Rossica, 9(4), 1317–1331. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.4.641

Issue

Section

Problema voluminis