The mouse, the snake, and the devil’s collar: Soviet symbols in the memory of Old Believers of the Upper Kama region
https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2024-10-1-68-83
Abstract
The Soviet project of creating the “new man” included the construction of a collective memory which was not only a legitimate version of the past, but also a repository of cultural values, and the background or space for celebrating Communist rituals. The project itself was rather uniform, but had multiple local incarnations that were determined mostly by the ethnic and religious identity of the local population. The Old Believers’ communities of the Russian North shared with the rest of the country symbols of the past, sites of memory, and commemorative rituals. Still, local perceptions of the Communist regime and its symbols depended in this milieu on a variety of factors: first, the high literacy rate of the deeply religious Old Believers, as well as their erudite knowledge of Christian, and specifically Old Russian literature; second, the very critical attitude toward Soviet power; and third, local beliefs. This article analyzes the process of adaptation of the Communist project to Old Believers’ persistent religious and cultural traditions and seeks to explain how Communist symbols symbiotically coexisted with hostile local attitudes and why they even survived the collapse of the regime. Mutual adjustment of the imposed Communist project and the local symbolic language took many decades, yet finally, by the end of the Soviet era, when three or four generations had seen no other reality than that they were surrounded by, the strong rejection of this reality was smoothed out, everyday tensions mostly disappeared, and the earlier alienation itself became part of collective memory on both family and community levels. The article is based on interviews with Old Believers of the Upper Kama region (Verkhokamie), conducted by the author in 2011 and 2013.
Keywords
collective memory,
Old Believers,
the Upper Kama region (Verkhokamie),
the Anti-Christ,
Octobrists,
Pioneers,
Komsomol
Supporting agencies: The article was written on the base of the state assignment for the RSUH of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, project No. 075-00870-23-00.
About the Author
O. B. Khristoforova
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga B. Khristoforova, Dr. Sci. (Philology) Senior Researcher, Research and Education Center
125047, Moscow, Miusskaya Sq., 6
References
1. Anisimova, T. V. et al. (Eds.) (1995). Otkrovenie sv. Ioanna Bogoslova v mirovoi knizhnoi traditsii: Katalog vystavki [Revelation of St. John the Theologian in the world book tradition: Exhibition catalogue]. Indrik. (In Russian).
2. Antonov, D., & Maizul’s, M. (2013). Anatomiia ada: Putevoditel’ po drevnerusskoi vizual’noi demonologii [Anatomy of Hell: Guide to visual demonology in medieval Russia]. Forum; Neolit. (In Russian).
3. Breshchinskii, D. N. (1979). Zhitie Korniliia Vygovskogo kak literaturnyi pamiatnik i ego literaturnye sviazi na Vygu [“Life of Kornilii of the Vyg” as a literary monument and its literary connections in Vyg]. In D. S. Likhachev (Ed.). Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury (Vol. 33, pp. 127–141). Nauka; Leningradskoe otdeleniie. (In Russian).
4. Colfer, A. M. (1985). Morality, kindred and ethnic boundary: A study of the Oregon Old Believers. AMS Press.
5. Crummey, R. O. (1970). The Old Believers and the world of Antichrist; the Vyg community and the Russian state, 1694–1855. Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
6. Kain, K. M. (2005). Patriarch Nikon’s image in Old Believer culture(s): A comparative, semiological and iconographical analysis of the tales about Nikon inspired by the “Life of Kornilii”. In I. V. Pozdeeva (Ed.). Mir staroobriadchestva, Vol. 6: Traditsionnaia kul’tura Permskoi zemli (pp. 141–168). Remder.
7. Khristoforova, O. (2010). Kolduny i zhertvy: Antropologiia koldovstva v sovremennoi Rossii [Witches and victims: Anthropology of witchcraft in present-day Russia]. OGI; RGGU. (In Russian).
8. Kostrov, A. V. (2010). Sovetskaia vlast’ i staroobriadtsy Baikal’skoi Sibiri v 20-e gg. XX v. [Soviet power and Old Believers of Baikal Siberia in the 1920s]. Novyi istoricheskii vestnik, 2010(1, no. 23), 35–42. (In Russian).
9. Peretts, V. N. (1900). Slukhi i tolki o Patriarkhe Nikone v literaturnoi obrabotke pisatelei XVII—XVIII vv. [Rumors and gossip about Patriarch Nikon in the literary treatments by writers of the 17th–18th centuries]. Izvestiia Otdeleniia russkogo iazyka i slovesnosti Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk, 5(1), 123–190. (In Russian).
10. Pokrovskii, N. N. (1992). Traditsii i novatsii v dukhovnoi zhizni russkogo staroobriadchestva [Traditions and innovations in the spiritual life of the Russian Old Believers]. In N. N. Pokrovskii, & R. Morris (Eds.). Traditsionnaia dukhovnaia i material’naia kul’tura russkikh staroobriadcheskikh poselenii v stranakh Evropy, Azii i Ameriki (pp. 6–12). Nauka. (In Russian).
11. Robson, R. R. (1995). Old Believers in modern Russia. Northern Illinois Univ. Press.
12. Rogers, D. (2009). The Old Faith and the Russian land: A historical ethnography of ethics in the Urals. Cornell Univ. Press.
13. Sokolova, L. V. (1989). Povest’ o greshnoi materi [The Tale of the Sinful Mother]. In D. S. Likhachev (Ed.). Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi, Vol. 2: Vtoraia polovina XIѴ–XѴI vv. (pp. 233–234). (In Russian).
Review
For citations:
Khristoforova O.B. The mouse, the snake, and the devil’s collar: Soviet symbols in the memory of Old Believers of the Upper Kama region. Shagi / Steps. 2024;10(1):68-83. https://doi.org/10.22394/2412-9410-2024-10-1-68-83
Views:
68
Email this article 