INDG 401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: State Anthem Of The Soviet Union, Lubyanka Square, National Anthem Of Russia
9 Jun 2018
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Lecture 22, MONUMENTAL POLITISC IN RUSSIA
Russian anthem:
restore old Soviet anthem with new words
new words written by the same person who wrote the Soviet national anthem
WHAT POST SOVIET RUSSIA WAS NOT
in the 1990s, Russia was trying to redefine post soviet identity
some difficulty breaking with the society past
post soviet Russia was no longer the great power, ideological center of communist movement,
not a cohesive territorial unit
so, what is Russia and who are the Russians?
they had to figure out what parts of things united the country
it was so troublesome that there was a competition for someone to come up with a new
Russian national idea
there was no winner
CONCEPTIONS OF THE NATION
three different kinds of conceptions of a nation:
- ethnic: exclusive political community defined by language, religion, cultural heritage, and
common ancestry
- imperial: larger community defined by political, economic or ideological influence
- civic: an inclusive political community, defined by shared democratic values
Russian seemed to reject unity of soviet identity
the ethnic and especially imperial ideal and symbols becoming more prominent over time
SYMBOLIC CAPITAL
Pierre Bourdieu (The Logic of Practice)
the symbol u associate yourself with are meant to send a broader message
A society’s medium of honor, prestige and status
groups compete for symbolic capital
SC has power simply because people believe it does
even though elite was uncomfortable w a lot of aspects of soviet identity they could not just
get rid of it entirely because it was part of the system
this difficulty arguable legitimated Putin’s later effort to re write soviet history for his own
end, rebuild Russian identity around idea of Russian patriotism in service to the state
victims of Stalinist regime
state repression: Solovetskii stone and Lubyanka Square
Lubyanka square matters because it is where the headquarters of the KGB were
in the 1990s:
- there was the placement of the solovetskii stone (taken from Gulag and placed there by an
organization that emerged under Gorbachev and was dedicated to releasing information and
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