Images of Power in the Early Soviet Society: Evolution of Official Representations, Sources and Mechanisms of Their Construction

Ludmiła Mazur

Abstract


The article discusses creation and evolution of the official image of Soviet state power between 1917 and the 1930s. This image was deliberately constructed and included symbols of statehood (national coat of arms; motto; flag; and anthem); institutions that embodied characteristics of power organization; leaders as personification of power; the state myth; rituals; and sites of memory. Throughout the early Soviet period, the evolving image of power reflected the changes in the government’s self-understanding. Regarding the structure and the ideological content of the image of power, we can point out three successive variations: revolutionary, people’s (workers and peasants), and Party-state. The article describes the structure of these variations and the factors that shaped their development.


Keywords


symbols of power, Soviet government, early Soviet society, image of Soviet power

Full Text:

PDF

References


Primary Sources

Dekret o pamyatnikakh respubliki ot 12 aprelya 1918 g., in: Dekrety sovetskoy vlasti, vol. 15, vol. 2, 17 marta–10 ijulja, Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoy literatury, 1959.

Konstitutsia (Osnovnoy Zakon) Rossiyskoy Sotsialisticheskoy Federativnoy Sjvetskoy Respubliki, Prinyata V Vserossiyskim syezdom Sovetov v zasedanii ot 10 ijulja 1918 goda, http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/cnst1918.htm#1

Postanovlenie o forme blankov gosudarstvennykh uchrezhdeny ot 2 marta 1918 goda, in: Dekrety sovetskoy vlasti, vol. 15, vol. 2, 25 oktyabrya 1917–16 marta 1918 g., Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoy literatury, 1957.

Formula torzhestvennogo obeschania voinov Raboche-Krestyanskoy Krasnoy armii, in: Dekrety sovetskoy vlasti, vol. 15, vol. 2, Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoy literatury, 1959.

Secondary Literature

Bonnel V., Representatsia zhenschiny v rannikh sovetskikh plakatakh, in: Vizualnaya antropologia: rezhimy vidimosty pri sotsialisme, E.R. Yarskaya-Smirnova, P.V. Romanova (eds.), Moskva: OOO ‘Variant’, Centre for Social Policy and Gender Studies, 2009.

Esaulov I.A., Kategoria sobornosti v russkoy literature, Petrozavodsk: Petrozavodsk University’s Publishing House, 1995.

Filimonchik S.N., Prazdnichnaya kultura Petrozavodska v 1920–1930-e gg., “Carelica” 2015, 1 (15), http://carelica.petrsu.ru/2015/PHILIMONCHIK.pdf

Kolonitsky B.I., Simvoly vlasti i borba za vlast: k izucheniyu politicheskoy kultury rossiyskoy revolutsii 1917 g., St. Petersburg 2000.

Kolonitsky B.I., Simvoly vlasti i borba za vlast: k izucheniyu politicheskoy kultury Rossiyskoy revolutsii 1917 g., “Kulturologia” 2002, 4 (24).

Kolonistky B., Navstrechu Oktyabryu, Krasnaya Paskha revolutsii, Nash Petrograd – Chetverty Rim, “Delo”, weekly newspaper, 23 IV 2007, http://www.idelo.ru/461/19.html

Mazur L.N., Konstruirovanie revolutsionnogo mifa v sovetskom khudozhestvennom kinematografe (1917–1953), “Vestnik arkhivista” 2017, 3.

Polonsky V., Russky revolutsionny plakat, Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo, 1924.

Romanovich N.A., Obraz vlasti kak otrazhenie rossiyskoy politicheskoy kultury, “Vestnik VGU. Seria: lingvistika i mezhkulturnaya kommunikatsia” 2010, 1.

Shalaeva N.V., Personifikatsia obraza vlasti v sovetskoy politicheskoy kulture 1920kh gg, “Vlast” 2014, 2.

Shalaeva N.V., Sotsiokulturnye zadachi sovetskoy vlasti i politichesky plakat period Grazhdanskoy voyny, “Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kulturologia i iskusstovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki” 2012, 5 (19), in 2 volumes, vol. 1.

Shalaeva N.V., Sovetsky gosudarstvenny prazdnik kak mekhanism formirovania representativnogo obraza vlasti i sotsiokulturnoy kommunikatsii, “Vlast” 2013, 1.

Sheshunova S., Yazyk propagandy 1918–1922 v kontekste russkoy kultury, http://postsymbolism.ru/joomla/index.php?id=33&option=com_content&task=view

Vortman R., Offitsialnaya narodnost’ i natsionalny mif rossiyskoy monarkhii XIX veka, in: ROSSIA/RUSSIA, 3 (11): Kulturnye praktiki v ideologicheskoy perspective, Moskva 1999.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/rh.2017.44.193-215
Date of publication: 2018-07-13 12:28:54
Date of submission: 2018-07-13 11:37:42


Statistics


Total abstract view - 798
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 582

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Ludmiła Mazur

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.