“LIFE” VS “IZVESTIA”: AMERICAN-SOVIET DISCUSSION OF THE 1958 USSR SUPREME SOVIET ELECTIONS
Keywords:
Life, Izvestia, Elections, Supreme Soviet, Soviet DemocracyAbstract
The article discusses an attempt to use the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR as a tool to promote the political advantage of socialism. The turn of the 1950s and 1960s was marked by a desire to build a dialogue between East and West. The USSR demonstrated its openness and willingness to compete with the West not only with tanks, planes and missiles, but also on a symbolic field. One such aspect of the competition, which was supposed to prove the superiority of socialism, was the Soviet elections. Soviet propaganda actively emphasized that genuine democracy existed only in the USSR. At the same time, the Soviet leadership did not at all seek to hide the features of Soviet elections (such as almost 100% turnout and no alternative elections), but rather tried to show the progressive nature of the Soviet electoral system. The articles by American journalist Hedley Donovan in the “Life” magazine and by Soviet journalist Vladimir Kudryavtsev in the “Izvestia” newspaper, which show the perception of the principles of democracy by representatives of different systems, serve as material in the paper. They show that for an American, having one candidate on the ballot overrode all the advantages of the Soviet elections, while for the Soviet side, it was an important sign of democracy. The desire to use Soviet reality as a basis for propaganda, and disappointment in the outcome of the exchange show that for the Soviet side, the election campaign for the USSR Supreme Soviet was seen not only as a political spectacle, but rather as a real manifestation of the Soviet understanding of democracy. The Soviet leadership adopted the idea of the need to lift the iron curtain, and then the very reality of the Soviet system would be the best argument to confirm the advantages of socialism. The article analyzes the political language of the description of the Soviet electoral system and the problems of modern studies of this issue.References
Голубев А. Западный наблюдатель и западный взгляд в аффективном менеджменте советской субъективности // После Сталина: позднесоветская субъективность (1953–1985): сб. стат. / под ред. А. Пинского. СПб.: Изд-во Европ. ун-та в С.-Петерб., 2018. С. 219−255.
Кимерлинг А. Выполнять и лукавить, политические кампании поздней сталинской эпохи. М.: Изд. дом Высш. шк. экономики, 2017. 216 с.
Клакхон К.К.М. Зеркало для человека. Введение в антропологию. СПб.: Евразия, 1998. 352 с.
Кулевиг Э. Народный протест в хрущевскую эпоху. Девять рассказов о неповиновении в СССР. М.: АИРО-XXI, 2009. 206 с.
Курилла И. Заклятые друзья: история мнений, фантазий, контактов, взаимо(не)понимания Рос-сии и США. М.: НЛО, 2018. 424 с.
Меликова Н.М. Исторический опыт функционирования советской избирательной системы (1936−1985 гг.): дис. ... канд. ист. наук. М., 2001. 248 с.
Папков С.А. Выборы в Верховный Совет СССР 1937 года. Внедрение советских избирательных манипуляций // Вопросы истории. 2016. № 11. С. 3−15.
Подосинников А.Ю. Исторический опыт проведения выборов в органы народного представи-тельства на территории Курской области в 1950−1970-е гг.: дис. ... канд. ист. наук. Курск, 2014. 205 с.
Тихомиров А. «Режим принудительного доверия» в Советской России, 1917−1941 годы // Неприкосновенный запас. 2013. № 6 (092). С. 78−118.
Фокин А.А. «Коммунизм не за горами»: образы коммунистического будущего у власти и насе-ления СССР в 1950−1970-х гг. М.: РОССПЭН, 2017. 223 с.
Юрчак А. Это было навсегда, пока не кончилось. Последнее советское поколение. М.: НЛО, 2014. 664 с.
Voting for Hitler and Stalin: Elections Under 20th Century Dictatorships. Campus Verlag, 2011. 349 p.
Phillips S., Hamilton S. The Kitchen Debate and Cold War Consumer Politics: a Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 171 p.
References
Fokin, A.A. (2017), «Kommunizm ne za gorami»: obrazy kommunisticheskogo budushhego u vlasti i naseleniya SSSR v 1950–1970-h gg. [“Communism is not far off”: images of the communist future in the power and population of the USSR in the 1950–1970s], ROSSPEN, Moscow, Russia, 223 p.
Golubev, A. (2018), “Western Observer and Western Gaze in the Affective Management of Soviet Subjectivity”, in Posle Stalina: pozdnesovetskaya subektivnost' (1953–1985): sbornik statey [After Stalin: Late Soviet Subjectivity (1953–1985): Collection of Papers], Izdatel'stvo Evropeyskogo universiteta v Sankt-Peterburge, St. Petersburg, Russia, pp. 219–255.
Kimerling, A. (2017), Vypolnyat' i lukavit', politicheskie kampanii pozdney stalinskoy epohi [Fulfill and deceive, political campaigns of the late Stalin era], Izd. dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, Moscow, Russia, 216 p.
Klakhon, K.K.M. (1998), Zerkalo dlya cheloveka. Vvedenie v antropologiyu [A Mirror for Man. An introduction to anthropology], Evraziya, St. Petersburg, Russia, 352 p.
Kulevig, Ye. (2009), Narodnyy protest v hrushhevskuyu epohu. Devyat' rasskazov o nepovinovenii v SSSR [People's Protest in the Khrushchev Era. Nine stories of disobedience in the USSR], AIRO-XXI, Moscow, Russia, 206 p.
Kurilla, I. (2018), Zaklyatye druz'ya: istoriya mneniy, fantaziy, kontaktov, vzaimo(ne)ponimaniya Rossii i SShA [Frenemies: A history of opinions, fantasies, contacts, mutual(un)understanding of Russia and the USA], NLO, Moscow, Russia, 424 p.
Melikova, N. M. (2001), Istoricheskiy opyt funktsionirovaniya sovetskoy izbiratel'noy sistemy (1936–1985 gg.) [Historical experience of the functioning of the Soviet electoral system (1936–1985)], Dis. ... k.i.n., Moscow, Russia, 248 p.
Papkov, S. A. (2016), “Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1937. Introduction of Soviet electoral manipulations”, Voprosy istorii, №11, pp. 3–15.
Phillips, S. & S. Hamilton (2014), The Kitchen Debate and Cold War Consumer Politics: A Brief History with Documents, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, USA, 171 p.
Podosinnikov, A. Yu. (2014), Istoricheskiy opyt provedeniya vyborov v organy narodnogo predstavitel'stva na territorii Kurskoy oblasti v 1950-1970-e gg. [Historical experience of elections in the bodies of people's representation in the Kursk region in 1950-1970s], Dis. ... k.i.n., Kursk, Russia, 205 p.
Tihomirov, A. (2013), “«The regime of forced trust» in Soviet Russia, 1917–1941”, Neprikosnovennyy zapas, №6 (092), pp. 78–118.
Voting for Hitler and Stalin: Elections under 20th Century Dictatorships (2011), Campus Verlag, Chicago, USA, 349 p.
Yurchak, A. (2014), Eto bylo navsegda, poka ne konchilos'. Poslednee sovetskoe pokolenie [It was forever until it ended. The last Soviet generation], NLO, Moscow, Russia, 664 p.
