Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T19:18:49.684Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Building the Nation, Legitimizing the State: Russia—My History and Memory of the Russian Revolutions in Contemporary Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2020

Ekaterina V. Klimenko Open the ORCID record for Ekaterina V. Klimenko [Opens in a new window]
Ekaterina V. Klimenko*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union set Russia’s ruling elites the challenge of nation-building: while “Russians” had to be imagined as a political community on behalf of which the newly established Russian state was ruled, their national history needed to be narrated. Crucial for this enterprise was interpreting the Soviet past. Although the latter was used for political purposes by both Boris Yeltsin (who attempted to break with it) and Vladimir Putin (who established continuity with it), a politically usable interpretation of the Russian Revolutions was never found. Such is the consensus that emerged in 2017. Challenging this consensus, I argue that a specific interpretation of the Revolutions—nested within a narrative that covers Russia’s history from Kievan Rus to the contemporary Russian Federation—has been developed in Russia. Turning Russia’s politically problematic past into a politically usable one, this interpretation is (re)produced through the project Russia—My History. As Russia—My History (initially developed within the Russian Orthodox Church) is becoming a part of state-sponsored efforts to forge an “official” vision of Russian history, the interpretation of the Revolutions (re)produced through it is growing in influence in present-day Russia.

Keywords

nation-buildingnational narrativeRussian Orthodox Churchcontemporary Russia, Russia—My History
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 72 - 88
Check for updates
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agadjanian, Alexander. 2001. “Revising Pandora’s Gifts: Religious and National Identity in the Post-Soviet Societal Fabric.” Europe-Asia Studies 53 (3): 473–488.10.1080/09668130120045898CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agadjanian, Alexander. 2017. “Tradition, Morality and Community: Elaborating Orthodox Identity in Putin’s Russia.” Religion, State and Society 45 (1): 39–60.10.1080/09637494.2016.1272893CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alonso, Ana Maria. 1988. “The Effects of Truth: Re-Presentations of the Past and the Imagining of Community.” Journal of Historical Sociology 1 (1): 33–57.10.1111/j.1467-6443.1988.tb00003.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bell, Duncan S. A. 2003. “Mythscapes: Memory, Mythology, and National Identity.” British Journal of Sociology 54 (1): 63–81.10.1080/0007131032000045905CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogumił, Zuzanna. 2018. Gulag Memories: The Rediscovery and Commemoration of Russia’s Repressive Past. Translated by Palmer, Philip. New York: Berghahn Books.10.2307/j.ctvw04bqgCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogumił, Zuzanna, and Łukaszewicz, Marta. 2018. “Between History and Religion: The New Russian Martyrdom as an Invented Tradition.” East European Politics and Societies and Cultures 32 (4): 936–963.10.1177/0888325417747969CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyarin, Jonathan. 1994. “Space, Time, and the Politics of Memory.” In Remapping Memory: The Politics of TimeSpace, edited by Boyarin, Jonathan, 1–38. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Budraitskis, Il’ia, and Napreenko, Gleb. 2016. “Pobedila li ‘istoricheskaia Rossiia’?” [Did ‘historical Russia’ win?] Raznoglasiia. March 25. https://www.colta.ru/articles/raznoglasiya/10454. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. 1997. Nationalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Carleton, Gregory. 2011. “History Done Right: War and the Dynamics of Triumphalism in Contemporary Russian Culture.” Slavic Review 70 (3): 615–36.10.5612/slavicreview.70.3.0615CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vystavka-Forum, Cerkovno-Obshhestvennaja “Pravoslavnaja Rus’”.n.d. “Glavnaja” [Main]. http://www.pravoslav-expo.ru. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Christensen, Karin H. 2018. The Making of the New Martyrs of Russia: Soviet Repression in Orthodox Memory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Coakley, John. 2004. “Mobilizing the Past: Nationalist Images of History.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 10 (4): 531–560.10.1080/13537110490900340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Consuelo. 2000. “Identity and Persuasion: How Nations Remember Their Pasts and Make Their Futures.” World Politics 52 (3): 275–312.10.1017/S0043887100016555CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curanovic, Alicja. 2012. The Religious Factor in Russia’ s Foreign Policy. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203133279CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dianina, Katia. 2018. “Vozvrashennoje Nasledije: Nikolaj II Kak Novodel” [The Return of the Repressed Heritage: Nicholas II as a Work of Art]. New Literary Observer 1 (149): 218–241.Google Scholar
Dorman, Veronica. 2010. “Ot Solovkov Do Butovo: Russkaja Pravoslavnaja Cerkov’ i Pamjat’ o Sovetskih Repressijah v Postsovetskoj Rossii” [From Solovki toward Butovo: Russian Orthodox Church and memory of the Soviet repressions in post-Soviet Russia]. Laboratorium 2: 327–347.Google Scholar
Dozhd’ [TV Rain]. 2017. “Bloomberg rasskazal ob investitsiiakh ‘Gazproma’ v patrioticheskie ob’kty” [Bloomberg Reported on Gazprom Investing in Patriotic Objects]. November 16. https://tvrain.ru/news/gazprom-450392. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Esin, Ivan. 2017. “TK “Dozhd” krupno proschitalsia” [TV Rain played the wrong card] myhistorypark.ru. November 22. https://myhistorypark.ru/news/tk-dozhd-krupno-proschitalsya/?city=msk. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Evans, Andrew. 2002. “Forced Miracles: The Russian Orthodox Church and Postsoviet International Relations.” Religion, State and Society 30 (1): 33–43.10.1080/09637490220127611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldmann, Magnus, and Mazepus, Honorata. 2018. “State-Society Relations and the Sources of Support for the Putin Regime: Bridging Political Culture and Social Contract Theory.” East European Politics 34 (1): 57–76.10.1080/21599165.2017.1414697CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. 2017. “Celebrating (or Not) the Russian Revolution.” Journal of Contemporary History 52 (4): 816–831.10.1177/0022009417723975CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fond Gumanitarnyh Proektov. n.d. “Partnery” [Partners]. http://expohistory.ru/?page=partner. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Garrard, John G., and Garrard, Carol. 2008. Russian Orthodoxy Resurgent: Faith and Power in the New Russia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gerschewski, Johannes. 2013. “The Three Pillars of Stability: Legitimation, Repression, and Co-Optation in Autocratic Regimes.” Democratization 20 (1): 13–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glanzer, Perry L., and Petrenko, Konstantin. 2007. “Religion and Education in Post-Communist Russia: Russia’s Evolving Church–State Relations.” Journal of Church and State 49 (1): 53–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorodskoi metodicheskii tsentr [City methodic center]. 2016. “Metodicheskie rekomendatsii Departamenta gosudarstvennoi politiki v sfere obshchego obrazovaniia Minobrnauki Rossii po ispol'zovaniiu na urokakh istorii i vo vneurochnoi deiatel’nosti resursov ekspozitsii istoricheskogo parka Rossiia – Moia istoriia” [Methodic Recommendations of the Department of State Policy for Public Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on the Use of the Recourses of the Exhibitions of the Historical Park Russia – My History during the History Lessons and in the Extracurricular Activity]. September 27. http://mosmetod.ru/metodicheskoe-prostranstvo/vospitatelnaya-rabota/klassnaya-rabota/metodicheskie-materialy/metodicheskie-rekomendatsii-departamenta-gosudarstvennoj-politiki-v-sfere-obshchego-obrazovaniya-minobrnauki-r.html. (Accessed April 29, 2018.)Google Scholar
Greene, Samuel A. 2017. “From Boom to Bust: Hardship, Mobilization and Russia’s Social Contract.” Daedalus 146 (2): 113–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heisler, Martin O. 2008. “Challenged Histories and Collective Self-Concepts: Politics in History, Memory, and Time.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 617 (1): 199–211.10.1177/0002716207313436CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalinin, Ilya. 2013. “Antirevolutsionnij Exorcism” [Anti-Revolutionary exorcism]. Neprikosnovennij Zapas 5 (91). https://magazines.gorky.media/nz/2013/5/antirevolyuczionnyj-ekzorczizm.html. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Keller, Reiner. 2011. “The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD).” Human Studies 34 (1): 43–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolonitskii, Boris. 2017. “Unpredictable Past: Politics of Memory and Commemorative Culture in Contemporary Russia.” In 1917 Revolution: Russia and the Consequences, edited by Deutsches Historisches Museum and Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, 155–167. Dresden: Sanstein Verlag.Google Scholar
Kremlin.ru. 2017a. “Otkrytie pamiatnika velikomu kniaziu Sergeiu Aleksandrovichu” [The opening of the monument to the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich]. May 4. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54447 (Accessed September 20, 2018.)Google Scholar
Kremlin.ru. 2017b. “Poseshchenie Sretenskogo monastyria” [The visit to the Sretensky monastery]. May 25. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54573 (Accessed November 29, 2018.)Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2019. “Commemorating 1917 in Russia: Ambivalent State History Policy and the Church’s Conquest of the History Market.” Europe-Asia Studies 71 (2): 249–267.10.1080/09668136.2018.1552922CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lisovskaya, Elena, and Karpov, Vyacheslav. 2010. “Orthodoxy, Islam, and the Desecularization of Russia’s State Schools.” Politics and Religion 3 (2): 276–302.Google Scholar
Malinova, Olga Y. 2018a. “Obosnovanie Politiki 2000-Kh Godov v Diskurse V.V. Putina i Formirovanie Mifa o ‘likhikh Devianostykh’” [Justifying the political course of the 2000s and constructing the myth about “the hard nineties” in Vladimir Putin’s discourse]. Politicheskaia Nauka 3: 45–69.Google Scholar
Malinova, Olga Y. 2018b. “The Embarrassing Centenary: Reinterpretation of the 1917 Revolution in the Official Historical Narrative of Post-Soviet Russia (1991–2017).” Nationalities Papers 46 (2): 272–289.Google Scholar
Mazneva, Elena. 2017. “Russia’s Gas Giant Pours Money into Patriotic Theme Parks.” Bloomberg.com. November 15. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-16/putin-s-generous-gas-giant-puts-church-and-state-above-investors. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Miagkov, Mikhail. 2017. “Kogo s kem mirit pamiatnik Primireniia?” [Who Is Reconciled with Whom by the Monumet to Reconciliation?] Istorija.rf. June 19. https://histrf.ru/biblioteka/b/kogho-s-kiem-mirit-pamiatnik-primirieniia. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federadtion. 2015. “Doklad o rezul'tatakh i osnovnykh napravleniiakh deiatel'nosti Ministerstva kul'tury Rossiiskoi Federatsii za 2014 god i zadachakh na 2015 god” [Report on the Results and Primary Areas of Activity of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation for the Year 2014, and the Aims for the Year 2015]. https://www.mkrf.ru/activities/reports/report2014/. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Mjør, Kåre Johan. 2018. “Smuta: Cyclical Visions of History in Contemporary Russian Thought and the Question of Hegemony.” Studies in East European Thought 70 (1): 19–40.10.1007/s11212-018-9298-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moscow Patriarchate. 2010. “Zhurnaly zasedaniya Svyashchennogo Sinoda ot 5 marta 2010 goda” [Journal of Sessions of the Holy Synod from March 5, 2010], no 7. http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1106470.html. (Accessed September 25, 2018.)Google Scholar
Nazarov, Vladislav. 2004. “Chto Buddy Prazdnovat’ v Rossii 4 Nojabrya 2005 Goda?” [What Will Be Celebrated in Russia on November 4, 2005?]. Otechestvennyje Zapiski. http://www.strana-oz.ru/2004/5/chto-budut-prazdnovat-v-rossii-4-noyabrya-2005-goda.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey K., and Robbins, Joyce. 1998. “Social Memory Studies: From ‘Collective Memory’ to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 105–140.10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, Daniel P. 2010. “Spiritual Security, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Russian Foreign Ministry: Collaboration or Cooptation?” Journal of Church and State 52 (4): 712–727.10.1093/jcs/csq102CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirill, Patriarch. 2017a. “Slovo Pastyria” [Word of the pastor]. 1TV. July 8. https://www.1tv.ru/shows/slovo-pastyrya/vypuski/slovo-pastyrya-vypusk-ot-08-07-2017. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Kirill, Patriarch. 2017b. “Slovo Pastyria” [Word of the pastor]. 1TV. October 28. https://www.1tv.ru/shows/slovo-pastyrya/vypuski/slovo-pastyrya-vypusk-ot-28-10-2017. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
President of the Russian Federation. 2016. “Rasporiazhenie prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii ‘O podgotovke i provedenii meropriiatii, posviashchennykh 100-letiiu revoliutsii 1917 goda v Rossii’” [Ruling of the president of the Russian federation ‘On preparing and conducting of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the 1917 revolution in Russia’]. https://historyrussia.org/images/documents/0001201612200017.pdf. (Accessed November 22, 2018.)Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir. 2008. “Vystuplenie na rasshirennom zasedanii Gosudarstvennogo soveta ‘O strategii razvitiia Rossii do 2020 goda’” [Address Delivered at the Extended Session of the State Council ‘On the Strategy of the Development of Russia for the Period until 2020’]. Kremlin.ru. February 8. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24825. (Accessed November 29, 2018.)Google Scholar
RBC. 2017. “Dramaturgiia na VDNKh: kto dast deneg na organizatsiiu vydvizheniia Putina” [Dramaturgy at VDNKh: Who Will Fund the Organization of Putin’s Nomination]. December 20. https://www.rbc.ru/politics/20/12/2017/5a3973059a7947077ea011e6?from=newsfeed. (Accessed November 23, 2018.)Google Scholar
RIA Novosti. 2013. “Putin osmotrel posviashchennuiu Romanovym vystavku v moskovskom Manezhe” [Putin saw the exhibition dedicated to the Romanovs at Manezh]. November 4. https://ria.ru/20131104/974610782.html. (Accessed November 23, 2018.)Google Scholar
Rossiia segodnia [Russia today]. 2017. “Press-konferentsiia o rabote mul’timediinykh istoricheskikh parkov Rossiia — moia istoriia” [Press Conference on the Work of Multimedia Historical Parks Russia – My History]. December 13. http://pressmia.ru/pressclub/20171213/951788008.html. (Accessed November 22, 2018.)Google Scholar
Rousselet, Kathy. 2011. “Constructing Moralities around the Tsarist Family.” In Multiple Moralities and Religions in Post-Soviet Russia, edited by Zigon, Jarrett, 146–67. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Rousselet, Kathy. 2013. “The Russian Orthodox Church and Reconciliation with the Soviet Past.” In History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Memory Games, edited by Mink, Georges and Neumayer, Laure, 39–53. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137302052_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokolov, Nikita. 2014. “‘Krym-to tam otkuda vzialsia?!’: istorik razbiraet vystavku ‘Riurikovichi’” [‘How Did Crimea Got in There?!’: A Historian Is Analyzing the Exhibition ‘The Rurikids’]. Afisha Daily. November 20. https://daily.afisha.ru/archive/vozduh/art/krymto-tam-otkuda-vzyalsya-istorik-razbiraet-vystavku-ryurikovichi/. (Accessed November 22, 2019.)Google Scholar
Sut’ Vremeni [The Essence of Time]. 2017. “Otkrytoe pis'mo sevastopol'skogo otdeleniia dvizheniia ‘Sut’ vremeni’ predstaviteliam vlastei g. Sevastopolia” [Open Letter of the Sevastopol Branch of the Movement ‘The Essence of Time’ to the Representatives of the Administration of the City of Sevastopol]. June 14. https://eot.su/node/22539. (Accessed November 23, 2018.)Google Scholar
Svetova, Zoya. 2017. “Tikhon Shevkunov: “Ya lish' nemnogo znayu Putina” [Tikhon Shekunov: ‘I only Know Putin a Little’]. Radio Svoboda. November 14. https://www.svoboda.org/a/28851429.html. (Accessed October 3, 2018.)Google Scholar
TASS. 2017. “Sobranie izbiratelei podderzhalo samovydvizhenie Putina na vyborakh prezidenta” [The Convention of Voters Supported Putin’s Self-nomination for Presidential Election]. December 26. https://tass.ru/politika/4844768. (Accessed November 23, 2018.)Google Scholar
Teper, Yuri. 2017. “How Civic Is Russia’s New Civil Religion and How Religious Is the Church?” In Comparative Perspectives on Civil Religion, Nationalism, and Political Influence, edited by Lewin, Eyal, Bick, Etta, and Naor, Dan, 125–149. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Romanovs. n.d. Audio guide for the exhibition. Recorded by the author in the Moscow historical park Russia—My History on November 3, 2017.Google Scholar
Torbakov, Igor. 2014. “The Russian Orthodox Church and Contestations over History in Contemporary Russia.” Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 22 (1): 145–70.Google Scholar
Torbakov, Igor. 2018. “Celebrating Red October: A Story of the Ten Anniversaries of the Russian Revolution, 1927–2017.” Scando-Slavica 64 (1): 7–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vol’noe istoricheskoe obshchestvo [Free Historical Society]. 2017. “Obrashchenie Vol’nogo istoricheskogo obshchestva k ministru obrazovaniia i nauki Rossiiskoi Federatsii O.Y. Vasil’evoi” [Address of the Free Historical Society to the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation O. Y. Vasil’evoi]. December 7. https://volistob.ru/vio-news/obrashchenie-volnogo-istoricheskogo-obshchestva-k-ministru-obrazovaniya-i-nauki-rossiyskoy. (Accessed May, 29, 2019.)Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Margarete. 2018. “Never Again! Remembering October 1917 in the Contemporary Russian Orthodox Church.” Scando-Slavica 64 (1): 95–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar