Soviet and Post-Soviet Identities

Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, questions of identity have dominated the culture not only of Russia, but of all the countries of the former Soviet bloc. This timely collection examines the ways in which cultural activities such as fiction, TV, cinema, architecture and exhibitions have addressed these questions and also describes other cultural flashpoints, from attitudes to language to the use of passports. It discusses definitions of political and cultural nationalism, as well as the myths, institutions and practices that moulded and expressed national identity. From post-Soviet recollections of food shortages to the attempts by officials to control popular religion, it analyses a variety of unexpected and compelling topics to offer fresh insights about this key area of world culture. Illustrated with numerous photographs, it presents the results of recent research in an accessible and lively way.

Introduction Mark Bassin and Catriona Kelly; Part I. The Status of National Identity: 1. The contradictions of identity: being Soviet and National in the USSR and after Ronald Grigor Suny; 2. Tales told by Nationalists Nancy Condee; Part II. Institutions of National Identity: 3. National identity through visions of the past: contemporary Russian cinema Birgit Beumers; 4. Archaising culture: the Museum of Ethnography Dmitry Baranov; 5. Rituals of identity: the Soviet passport Albert Baiburin; Part III. Myths of National Identity: 6. 'If the war comes tomorrow': patriotic education in Soviet and post-Soviet primary school Vitaly Bezrogov; 7. Conquering space: the cult of Yuri Gagarin Andrew Jenks; 8. Nation-construction in post-Soviet Central Asia Sergei Abashin; Part IV. Spaces of National Identity: 9. Soviet and post-Soviet Moscow: literary reality or nightmare? Dina Khapaeva; 10. From the USSR to the Orient: national and ethnic symbols in the city text of Elista Elza-Bair Guchinova; 11. The place(s) of Islam in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia Victoria Arnold; Part V. Languages of National Identity: 12. Language culture and identity in post-Soviet Russia: the economies of mat Michael Gorham; 13. Policies and practices of language education in post-Soviet Central Asia: between ethnic identity and civic consciousness Olivier Ferrando; 14. Surviving in the time of deficit: the narrative construction of a 'Soviet identity' Anna Kushkova; Part VI. Creeds of National Identity: 15. Competing orthodoxies: identity and religious belief in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia Catriona Kelly; 16. 'Popular orthodoxy' and identity in twentieth-century Russia: ideology, consumption and competition Alexander Panchenko; 17. Religious affiliation and the politics of post-Soviet identity: the case of Belarus Galina Miazhevich; Index.

This new collection offers a fresh look at post-Soviet Russia and Eurasia and at the Soviet historical background that shaped the present. It focuses on national identity and particularly on the ways in which this was understood in the last decades of Soviet power and has been redefined since 1991.

Mark Bassin is Research Professor in the History of Ideas at the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Catriona Kelly is Professor of Russian at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of New College, Oxford.