POL354H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Second Chechen War, Russian Culture, Gennady Zyuganov
Document Summary
Main opponent: leader of communist party gennady zuganov. Control over the media and powerful propaganda machine. Archetypical and ineradicable properties of russian political culture. Culture is often a derivative of political and economic institutions. Radical transformation of russian culture during the soviet period. Usual approach: russian history through the tsars, general secretaries, and presidents. Gessen: history of russia 1980s-2010s through life trajectories of "ordinary" people. Concept of homo soveticus from sociologist yuri levada. How participation in the memorialization process affects and reflect national identity formation in post-totalitarian societies. Cultural spaces and processes through which a society understands, interprets, and negotiates myths about its past. Through these processes, dominant cultural understandings of a "nation" or "people" may be formed. Means to provide stability in a seemingly chaotic present. Russia: elite groups have typically circumvented or manipulated participation in the memorialization process. Outcome: difference in civic-ness of national identity between 2 countries.
