GEOG 420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Angela Merkel, Hero City, Academic Conference
5 Jun 2018
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22. Monday March 19th: Monumental Politics in Russia
Russian National Identity and Symbolic Capital
The Soviet Anthem
- Chorus:
- Sing to the Fatherland, home of the free
- Bulwark of people in brotherhood strong
- O part of lenin, the strength of the people
- To Communism’s triumph lead us on
- Putin kept the same tune of the Soviet Anthem, but just changed the words
What Post-Soviet Russia was NOT (post 1991)
- The centre of an empire stretching from central europe to central asia and beyond
- A “great” and feared power
- The ideological centre of the international communist movement
- A cohesive territorial unit
- Chechnya war throughout the 90’s
- So what is russia and who are the russians?
- Has russia become independent for the soviet union?
Conceptions of the Nation
- Ethnic: exclusive political community, defined by language, religion, cultural heritage,
and common ancestry
- Imperial: a larger community defined by political, economic, or ideological influence
- Civic: an inclusive political community defined by shared democratic values
- Russians rejected unity of russian and soviet identity
- Civic nation idea didn’t last very long during this uncertain area
- Instead, imperial nation idea succeeded
Symbolic Capital
- Pierre Bourdieu (The Logic of Practice)
- A society’s medium of honour, prestige and status
- Groups and individuals compete for symbolic capital to achieve or maintain power and
status
- Will go to serious extents to get this symbolic capital
Remembering the Victims of State Repression
Solovetskii Stone and Lubianka Square (1999)
- It’s where the former headquarters of the KGB officials were
- Lived and worked there
- Solovetskii Stone in Lubianka Square
- Added by an organization that was started under Gorbachev
- They mostly do stuff related to releasing information about those repressed by
the state and Stalin
- Placed memorial stone in this park right outside KGB building
- Since 2007, memorial (organization) spent hours reading out names of victims
who were executed in 1930’s for their political ‘crimes’
- Literally stood by the stone for hours reading out these names
- There’s an inscription: “from your grandchildren, we love you”
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Dzerzhinsky in Lubianka Square
- Dzerzhinsky was the man who started the KGB and has a statue fo him
- 1991: the statue gets removed and put in Graveyard of Statues (in 1992)
- Completely disavowed by the state
- 1999: many of these statues which were removed art put back on their pedestals
- Trying to normalize them and not meant to honour their legacy necessarily
- Trying to decontextualize the statue
- A few communists that were left tried to get the statue back in the square by asking the
mayor but were denied
- The pedestal in front of the former KGB building is still empty though, nothing permanent
there
The Wall of Grief (Moscow, 2017)
- Opening on October 30th, 2017 (the national day of remembrance for Russians of those
who were repressed by the state)
- This was the big monument Memorial had called for in the past years, big state
sponsored monument dedicated to victims of state repression
- Memorial has recently been branded as a foreign agent b/c it took money from foreign
foundations → considered an NGO, condemns b/c its an outsider
- Incredibly impersonal monument
- No names, few shadows,
- Compared to the Monument to the Victims of communism in Prague, where a
statue of a man gets smaller and smaller as you get up the stairs and eventually
vanishes at the top
The Ambiguous Legacy of 1917
1917 as Divisive memory
- How to remember 1917 russian revolution
- In 1889, you get Eiffel tower, in 1989, get new entrance to the Louvre (for frances
anniversary)
- Putin
- “We must conduct this business towards reconciliation, towards convergence,
not towards further rifts and the exciting of passions”
- Lenin Mausoleum
- Lenin’s body still in the tomb in the mausoleum on Red Square
- Got rid of Stalin during Khrushchev's era
- Communist protesters: “Hands off Lenin!”
- Poll taken in 1996-2017
- Do you think that the october revolution played a positive or negative role in
russia's history?
- Most important eras: WWII (28%), Era of Peter the Great (31%)
- 1930’s and 1950’s is far down the list
Revolutions as a Threat
- Putin gvmt thinks these revolutions are threats
- These kinds of social movements from below would threaten regime
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- “The import of so called revolutionary knowhow and colour revolutions….always brings
with it blood, death of citizens, destruction an calamities for the countries that fell victim
to such tragedies”
- Head of Foreign intelligence and russian historical society
- Another poll:
- Do you think events similar to those of 1917 could repeat themselves today?
- About 28% say it would probably happen, not insignificant
Taming the Revolution
- Planned Monument of Reconciliation
- Supposed to be placed in Crimea
- Instead of nov. 7th revolution day, they change it to nov. 4th unity day
- Have academic conference to decide how they should talk and honour 1917
- Start talking about Great Russian Revolution
- No longer just the Bolsheviks revolution, oct. 30th revolution, it’s all of these
revolutions combined
State Power Through the Ages: Strength and Continuity
- “To restore the national consciousness we must link together the historical epochs and
return to understanding the simple truth that russia did not being in 1917 or even 1991,
that we have a single, indissoluble history, upon which we gain internal strength”
- Putin
- So they go back to reinstating imperial history
Alexander III
- Putin went to Crimea to unveil statue of Alexander the III in november 2017 (month of
remembrance)
- Nothing really bad happened under his rule
- Praises him for bringing peace and stability for Russia
Prince Vladimir Moscow, Nov, 4, 2016
- Year before, Putin went to honour the statue
- Happens to share same last name,
- This prince brings orthodoxy to russia
- Same figure that both russia and ukraine claim bring orthodoxy to their state
- Right outside Kremlin walls, on national unity day in 2016
- Tells us about Putin's idea of the past and the relationships between russia and
Ukraine
- Cathedral of Christ the saviour, Moscow is very close by to this statue of Prince Vladimir
- Restoration of this church recently
- Points to symbolic relationship of state and orthodox church
- It was originally blown up during the Soviet era
- The communists were going to build a palace to the communists with Lenin at
the top but infrastructure wasn’t great
Continuity and Putin
- All these monuments and changes have some roots to what Yeltsin was doing in the
90’s but Putin has taken them to much more significant lengths
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Monday march 19th: monumental politics in russia. Sing to the fatherland, home of the free. O part of lenin, the strength of the people. Putin kept the same tune of the soviet anthem, but just changed the words. The centre of an empire stretching from central europe to central asia and beyond. The ideological centre of the international communist movement. Ethnic: exclusive political community, defined by language, religion, cultural heritage, and common ancestry. Imperial: a larger community defined by political, economic, or ideological influence. Civic: an inclusive political community defined by shared democratic values. Russians rejected unity of russian and soviet identity. Civic nation idea didn"t last very long during this uncertain area. A society"s medium of honour, prestige and status. Groups and individuals compete for symbolic capital to achieve or maintain power and status. Will go to serious extents to get this symbolic capital. It"s where the former headquarters of the kgb officials were.
