Memory Operations: Evolution of the Historical Mythology of the “November” Holidays in Russia
Keywords:
Holiday, November 7, Historical Mythology, Cultural MemoryAbstract
The article deals with the use of “November” holidays (November 7 and 4) as the tools for the institutionaliza-tion of cultural memory of historical events. An attempt is made to reflect on the evolution of historical mythology and to redefine the meaning of the main Soviet holiday – the Day of the Proletarian Revolution during the 20th and early 21st centuries. In the early Soviet period, revolutionary retrospective prevailed in the historical mythology of October. During the Great Patriotic War, it was extensively revised to the appeal to the stories and personalities of Russian history. In the late Soviet period, the historical component of the holiday was significantly reduced and for-malized. The collapse of the Soviet Union, its ideological heritage, the formation of different ideas of the country's past and future, acute civil political and military confrontations of the 1990s, and the gradual dissipation of the Soviet identity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries actualized the task of changing the historical longue durée – from the revolutionary retrospective to a national/nationalist one. These circumstances predetermined the fate of the main rev-olutionary holiday of the USSR. The rapid and historically unjustified change of historical meanings of the “Novem-ber” holiday in Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s testified to the quality of the political situation in the country, the state of power, and the lack of consensus in the sociopolitical sphere. Operations with cultural memory, enhanced construction and planting of historical mythology are most often due to the lack of legitimation of power and the desire to justify or update it.doi 10.17072/2219-3111-2019-1-138-147References
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