Samenvatting
This chapter explores to what extent the memory of the Leningrad Blockade and the Holodomor as mass atrocities was instrumentalised in Soviet history textbooks for political purposes and identity formation throughout the Soviet period between 1951 and 1991. Based on textbook analysis, this chapter explores if and how the textbooks convey hunger or famine narratives and if not, how events surrounding these famines are addressed and possibly used for political purposes. While both famines were man-made and could be considered mass atrocities, within the Soviet textbooks, they are not seen as such. While the Holodomor is indeed silenced, the collectivisation including the measures taken against so-called kulaks, which partly caused the famine, is explicitly addressed and applauded from the Stalinist period onwards. This only changed in the Gorbachev era, during which the acts that led to the famine were condemned, but the perpetrators responsible were not, arguably because many people in society could be pinpointed as ‘implicated subjects’. With regard to the Leningrad Blockade, while the siege and its famine are addressed explicitly in textbooks from the Stalinist period onwards, the siege is not regarded as a mass atrocity but rather is used to show the perseverance and strength of the Soviet people. This chapter foremost concludes that, while famine circumstances are used for political purposes to glorify the past and the nation in the Soviet Union and arguably in other authoritarian regimes, explicit mentioning of hunger and suffering does not lend itself as a unifying trope to processes of nation-building.
Originele taal-2 | Engels |
---|---|
Titel | Famines and the Making of Heritage |
Redacteuren | Marguérite Corporaal, Ingrid de Zwarte |
Plaats van productie | London |
Uitgeverij | Routledge |
Pagina's | 44-70 |
ISBN van elektronische versie | 9781040088043 |
ISBN van geprinte versie | 9781032500157 |
DOI's | |
Status | Gepubliceerd - 05 jun. 2024 |