Russia’s Soviet Shadow Soviet Multiple large-scale reforms enacted in Russia over the past year made it seem as if the state was resolutely moving away from the ineffective Soviet system of management and borrowing from the experience of other countries. In health care, which is becoming more and more like that of Europe, doctors are being retrained as family physi- cians. American standardized tests similar to the GRE and TOEFL are being phased in at state schools; universities are switching from a five-year Soviet system to the higher education framework used by Europe. Academics are being evaluated according to international scholarly indi- ces. Even municipal services of various kinds – a scourge of every Russian accustomed to waiting in lines for hours to replace a passport or pay for electricity – are now intro- By Maria Silina ducing online services. Surely in five or ten years time Russians could look forward to a much tighter integration with the West. Yet activities in the cultural sphere tell a different story. Here the emphasis is on Russia’s uniqueness, and there PAUL E. RICHARDSON seems to be an effort to isolate the country from the rest of the world. 52 Russian Life | January/February 2015 TRANSLATION: Maria Antonova VASILY SARANA 53 russianlife.com | Russian Life  MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) Traditionally tightly integrated with Europe, Russia is drifting away: the Ministry of Culture’s latest “cultural policy” concept (being finalized) declares that Russia is a “unique civilization.” Early drafts leaked to the press in 2014 stated that “Russia is not Europe” and blasted such “foreign” concepts as tolerance. Curiously, this notion of Russian exceptionalism has its roots in two seemingly opposite, in fact adver- sarial, historical eras: prerevolutionary imperial Russia’s era of religious conservatism and the era of Soviet Russian communism. The mindsets of these historical periods echo and amalgamate in bizarre ways and com- prise the bouquet of ideas that shape the worldview of ordinary Russians. The common denominator, of course, is the positive imagery that came out of both of these eras. And that is understandable: prerevolutionary Russia and the USSR had rich histories and generated tremendous cultural President Putin and “The Surgeon.” contributions. The problem is finding how to properly MIKHAIL DZAPARIDZE (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) reconcile the two. The tendency to draw on both tradi- tions at once can create curious situations. For example, in 2010 Vladimir Putin held a live, televised meeting with “Khirurg” (Surgeon), Alexander Zaldostanov, the infamous leader of the arch-conser- vative Night Wolves motorcycle club. The club has in recent years taken on a role in Kremlin public relation actions and even headed a column of bikers partici- pating in a parade commemorating World War II. At the meeting Putin said, famously: “He who does not mourn for the breakup of the Soviet Union does not have a heart, and he who does not wish for its rebirth does not have a brain.” Thus did the central ideas of Russia’s political dis- course come to rest on ephemeral terms like “heart,” “spirit,” “traditional moral values,” and “spiritual bonds.” While there is no discussion of reconstructing the polit- ical-administrative structure of the USSR, politicians Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov places a rose on Stalin’s grave. actively draw on its symbolic capital to enhance their ALEXEI PAVLISHAK (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) personal power. IN 2013, THERE WAS A POSTER IN THE MOSCOW METRO THAT quoted writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn about the spiritual- ity of Russians. Solzhenitsyn, one of the loudest critics of the repressive Soviet regime, is not today cited for those discomforting critiques (in fact, his opposition to the Stalin regime is a subject of vicious attacks in the media – see Russian Life Nov/Dec 2014), but as an affirmation of the renewed focus on “traditional culture” in Russia, where such ideas as criticizing the authorities or tolerance are forbidden. Similarly, while the Russian government is bud- geting sizable sums to celebrate the centenary of Solzhenitsyn’s birth in 2018, it is cutting programs that illuminate Soviet-era repressions. Last summer the government rejected a planned federal program to commemorate the victims of repressions as “inadvis- A scene from the new Lyubov Orlova biopic. 54 Russian Life | January/February 2015  ITAR-TASS PHOTO able” and allowed the closure of the Perm-36 Museum run by activists and historians and based at a former Gulag camp. Equally revealing was a recent ceremony to decorate Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov with a religious order – despite Soviet Communists’ seven decades spent repressing religious dissidents and exterminating priests. Patriarch Kirill, when bestowing the Glory and Honor award on Zyuganov, said: “When we speak of preserving basic values, the values of faith, morality, culture, and the unity of our people, then all political forces should be together.” In this way, the regime is using any and all successful and memorable images to promote the posi- tive ideology of the new Russia. AFTER A DECADE FUNDING THE RESTORATION OF CHURCHES in the 1990s, Russian authorities turned their attention to restoration of the Soviet legacy and its symbols. Today Soviet images can be seen on modern posters and even advertising. For the celebration of November 4, the Day of National Unity, in 2014, Moscow authorities even put Joseph Stalin on posters advertising the festivities. Any Muscovite can cite examples of the resurgent Soviet aesthetic in everyday life, from the design of food packaging for pelmeni, dairy or sausages, to new films about the Soviet era. TV series are increasingly based in the Soviet era, for example, about a policemen in Moscow’s notoriously criminal Maryina Roshcha neighborhood in the 1940s. The coming season will also feature a show on friends who are black marketeers (fartsovshchiki) in the 1960s, and biopics on Stalin’s favorite film star (Lyubov Orlova), and another on his bodyguard. The aura of the Soviet Union is wafting through Russia once again. If it ever even left. THE PROCESS BEGAN, SYMBOLICALLY, WITH THE ADOPTION of the new national anthem, which President Vladimir Putin proposed be set to the original Soviet tune shortly after becoming president in 2000. New lyrics were written by Sergei Mikhalkov – the Soviet poet who authored the Soviet versions of the anthem: the 1943 version that mentioned Stalin (and was personally vetted by him), as well as the 1977 version that removed Stalin. The new/ old anthem provoked significant opposition, even from Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin, but in the end it was adopted. The equally iconic statue by Vera Mukhina – The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman – was also reborn. The gigantic statue was constructed for the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. It was also used for decades as a symbol of Mosfilm. After the fair, it found a new home near the entrance to the Agricultural Fair, in what was then Vera Mukhina’s iconic 1937 monument, “The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman,” the outskirts of Moscow. The imposing couple hoisting after its renovation and resurrection on the grounds of VDNKh. the Soviet hammer and sickle was christened “the scare- 55 russianlife.com | Russian Life  crows” by locals, themselves recent peasants and laborers name of the award, which was suspended in 1991, was not particularly enamored of the modern composition. Hero of Socialist Labor. The Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman lived in this suburb In 2014 another highly publicized reincarnation for decades, until 2003, when Moscow authorities sud- brought back the Soviet “GTO” standards (нормы denly announced that they would dismantle it in order ГТО). Short for “Ready for Labor and Defense,” the to refurbish the statue and resurrect it in a manner akin GTO program promoted physical fitness standards for to its 1937 presentation in Paris. Soviet citizens. Introduced in 1931 in schools across the The pair were unveiled in 2010, no longer atop a sim- country, the standards were used to measure abilities in ple pedestal, but perched on a pavilion that was rather running, jumping, swimming, and even rope climbing. smaller than the one at the World’s Fair, of different Those with particularly high marks in the various disci- materials and a different color. plines also received GTO medals. After President Putin Of course, not all Muscovites were surprised by decreed in March of 2014 (right after the Sochi Olympic such a “restoration.” Many remember a far more Games) that the athletic standards would be reintro- exotic example of the genre. The Hotel Moscow, just duced, regions raced to adopt them. Some government off Red Square, was designed by the legendary Alexei officials even took part in GTO competitions, much like Shchusev (see Red Square, page 28), and boasted in Soviet times. designer rooms and unique 1930s frescoes. It was Finally, in 2014 Moscow authorities announced that demolished in 2004. For over six decades it served its they would restore the Agricultural Fair to its former purpose admirably, and no one saw any reason to tear glory. The grounds, which hosted a major event in it down. Between 2004 and 2014 it was rebuilt as a 1954 where each Soviet republic had an ornate pavil- replica from the ground up, only without its historic ion showcasing its nature, economy, and culture, were interior. In October it opened under a new brand: later renamed VDNKh – literally the Exhibition of Four Seasons. Achievements of the National Economy. The pavilions, some of them architectural masterpieces, had fallen into IN RECENT YEARS THE FLOODGATES HAVE OPENED UP FOR disrepair by the 1990s, used as shady sales venues for Soviet reconstructions, accompanied by a fever of nos- everything from computer parts to alternative medi- talgia for the Soviet Union. cines. The park was renamed (in un-Soviet-like fashion) In 2011 Moscow authorities restored the capital’s VVTs (All-Russian Exhibition Center) and sometimes most famous park, Gorky Park – a 1930s institution hosted vast Orthodox fairs where various monasteries meant to be not only a place where the working class sold icons, books and homemade medovukha. could relax in their free time, but a place that developed After current Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin programs to promote a healthy lifestyle and ideologi- announced that the park would again be called VDNKh, cally sound proletarian ideals. After 1991, the vast ter- authorities evicted most of the firms that had taken up ritory was put to increasingly haphazard uses and even residence in its vast network of buildings. Yet you can deserted, but then suddenly it was made a centerpiece of still see young Muscovites rollerblading across its vistas Moscow’s new park development program, with endless or older visitors searching for the place where they used funds poured into attracting the young and hip as the to buy herbal supplements. Two old ladies I met during park was modeled on those of European capitals. a recent visit to the “Health” pavilion announced that The design employed for stands and signs alludes to they don’t need any “achievements.” What they needed the park’s golden age. Organizers also made sport one of was access to the shops they had grown to love. Other the park’s main themes, erecting outdoor exercise equip- visitors had different thoughts, praising plans to recreate ment, hosting regular runs and ping pong matches, and the florid moldings of the 1950s that the park was once even resurrecting the chess pavilion. known for. Many who are today in their thirties associate The Agricultural Fair was noted for its pompous Soviet images with happy memories of their child- Imperial Stalinesque style, but after 1956, when Stalin hood. Alexandra Stupina, a 30-year-old teacher, said and his ideas, including on the arts, were sharply crit- she is happy to see Soviet-style cheburek* stands and icized, the site began to be seen as in poor taste. The advertising images and misses “Soviet heroes, who extravagance of the moldings and the neoclassic style were men of principle and clearly distinguished began to be associated with the horrors of Stalinism. between good and evil.” But now, all that is old (or defamed, or pompously The cultural policies being implemented by those Soviet) is new again. in power build on Stupina’s sentiments. Last year Or almost all. Russia reintroduced the Soviet era Hero of Labor honor to recognize people who had reached promi- Top: The Agricultural Exhibition (VDNKh) then and now. nence in their profession (thirty years ago you might Middle: Youth toss grenades, assemble guns in GTO events. have gotten it for over-fulfilling the Plan). The full Bottom: Ice rink in Gorky Park, the Moscow Hotel. 56 * A deep-fried meat pastry shaped like a calzone that is traditional to Crimea Russian Life | January/February 2015 Tatars and Central Asia but was a ubiquitous Soviet outdoor snack  57 russianlife.com | Russian Life DMITRY FEOKTISTOV (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) DMITRY FEOKTISTOV (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) MIKHAIL GRUSHIN (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) FOTOKHRONIKA TASS (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) ARTYOM KOROTAYEV (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) ARTYOM GEODAKYAN (ITAR-TASS PHOTO)  FOTOKHRONIKA TASS (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) INTERPRESS (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) The once unassailable statue of Iron Felix on Lubyanka Square (1960). A new (2008) statue to Felix Dzherzhinsky in St. Petersburg. ALEXEI FILIPPOV (ITAR-TASS PHOTO) Moscow’s Kursk Metro station with the restored tribute to Stalin. 58 Russian Life | January/February 2015  Organizers hope to woo visitors with the park’s retro to reclaim the name for a few days each year so that it Soviet styling, evocative of childhood memories, and could be officially used during May 9 festivities. park managers have promised to create a homegrown A scandal broke out in 2008 when the nationwide fast food chain and sell ice cream made with old Soviet curriculum almost adopted a history textbook whose recipes. But while the vintage paper packaging might author was an apologist for Stalin’s repressions. But echo the 1960s, prices will be very twenty-first century. in 2009, one of the busiest stations on the Moscow It is also as yet unclear how the many ornate pavilions metro, Kurskaya, unveiled a restored original décor at will be put to profitable use in a disneyfied Sovietland its central entrance. The 1950s staircase vestibule with a run on capitalist principles. round dome once featured a statue of Stalin, and while For the generation that grew up in the 1980s and the metro stopped short of resurrecting the statue, they early 1990s, restoration of Stalin-era décor of the park did restore an inscription on the ceiling from the 1943 makes sense. “Everything Soviet that is pre-1950s does national anthem that praised Stalin: “Stalin raised us on seem to have historic and even artistic value,” said Olga, allegiance to the people, he inspired us to perform labor a 36-year-old small business owner. and feats.” (Нас вырастил Сталин на верность народу, на труд и на подвиги нас вдохновил.) Interestingly, BUT WHAT OF ALL THE DARKER ASPECTS OF THE SOVIET a different phrase graced the vestibule for decades after regime? the de-Stalinization of the 1960s: “The light of freedom The latest trend shows that even the most odious shone through the storm and the Great Lenin illumi- Soviet figures are gradually being rehabilitated in the nated our path.” (Сквозь грозы сияло нам солнце public space. For example, Felix Dzerzhinsky, the свободы и Ленин великий нам путь озарил.) infamous secret police chief that oversaw repressions Clearly current decision-makers are not afraid to bring following the October Revolution of 1917, was for Stalin’s name back into the public space. decades commemorated with a monument by the KGB headquarters – a place where thousands of MUSCOVITES HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THE RESTO- people were tortured and shot. The toppling of the ration of Soviet symbols and the constant nostalgic monument in 1991 was a symbolic rejection of the rhetoric concerning the Soviet Union. For some, it is in horrors of the past. line with Russia’s renewed imperial ambitions in foreign Yet Dzerzhinsky is now reappearing in various policy; fond Soviet memories fortify patriotic feelings manifestations, and the idea of restoring his statue of the present. “I am finally proud of my country,” said back at the center of Lubyanka Square will not die. Tatyana Kazanova, a 52-year-old doctor in Moscow. Most recently, a small group of Dzerzhinsky admirers Others, however, shudder at the unabashed re-Soviet- gathered on the now empty lawn where the monument ization in Russia, while for most the issue of Soviet heri- once stood and, in a small ceremony, erected a tiny tage and Communist repression is tangled and murky. In replica of the statue. Although slightly comical – the the words of Oleg Khromov, a 58-year-old art historian, group surrounded a small Felix for a few minutes and “one and the same family could have included both made an offering of flowers before carrying him away jailers and jailed.” – the event was shown on state television. It could be Thus, many Russians are not inclined to judge just a matter of time before Moscow’s authorities give history too harshly – even those who were victims of in to “public pressure” to allow Dzerzhinsky’s return. repressions. Galina Konechna, an editor specializing in Already his name serves to boost patriotism among the art publications, was born in the 1920s into a family of hardliners in the government: a division of the Interior Soviet revolutionaries. In the mid-1930s, when she was Ministry that bore his name between 1924-94 was just a child, her entire large family was arrested. Despite recently re-named for him. this, she remembers with a smile how she wept at Stalin’s Commemorating repressions of the Soviet era in funeral, and it is clear that the image of the “father of the public urban space continues to be the sole domain of people” brings back cherished memories. activists and non-governmental groups like Memorial Such contradictions lie at the heart of Russia’s (for example, see Notebook, page 9). State-financed emerging policies toward culture and history. The head projects seem to be moving in the opposite direction, in of an atheist political party is feted by the head of the fact one of the first tasks of Vladimir Putin after becom- state-sanctioned Orthodox Church; fashionable hip- ing acting president in 1999 was to erect a bust of Yuri sters lope through VDNKh as it rises from the ashes of Andropov, KGB chief between 1967 and 1982. This was perestroika; commuters hop onto free wifi while riding followed in 2000 by a memorial plaque for Stalin in the gleaming metro lines whose stonework immortalizes one Kremlin and memorial coins with his portrait. Voices of history’s most infamous murderers; rich Russians relax calling for re-renaming the southern city of Volgograd at a Four Seasons hotel replicated to resemble a Soviet with its Soviet moniker (Stalingrad) are gaining in vol- era landmark. ume. So much so that the regional parliament decided Such is the evolving landscape of Moscow. RL 59 russianlife.com | Russian Life  writers in this issue contributors ANNA MAZANIK (Birthing Pains, EKATERINA SCHULMAN page 40) is an historian of late- (PostScript, page 64) is a Russian imperial Russia. She was born in political scientist specializing in Moscow, graduated from Moscow the Russian legislative process, State University, and studied at and parliamentarism and decision- Johns Hopkins University, TU making mechanisms in hybrid Darmstadt and LMU Munich. political regimes. She has a Ph.D. She is currently researching the in political science and is a senior history of public health in Moscow lecturer at the Russian Presidential at Central European University, Academy of National Economy Budapest. Her article on the and Public Administration, and a outbreak of World War I in Russia permanent lecturer at the Moscow was featured in the July/August School of Civic Education. She 2014 issue of Russian Life. is the author of Law-Making as a Political Process and is a regular MIKHAIL MORDASOV (Crimean columnist with the newspaper Sojourn, page 46) was born Vedomosti. This is her first contri- in Novgorod and educated as bution to Russian Life. a lawyer. Yet, after taking up photography during his military MARIA SILINA (Sovietisms, service, he shifted his professional page 52) is an art historian goals to photojournalism. Since currently working as a researcher 2009 he has lived in Sochi and at the Russian Academy of Arts’ worked as a freelance photog- Research Institute for Theory and rapher in both that city and the History of Visual Arts in Moscow. wider Caucasus region. His pho- She is particularly interested in tography from Sochi was featured Soviet art and urban space, as in a Russian Life Jan/Feb 2012 well as the issues of public mem- article on environmental efforts in ory of the Soviet Union. She has the region. written for a number of academic and popular journals. Her article ALEXANDER MOZHAYEV (Red on Russia’s iconic Shukhov Radio Square, page 28) is a graduate of Tower appeared in the May/June the Moscow Architectural Institute, issue of Russian Life. with a specialty in architectural restoration. Since 2002 he has IGOR SOBOLEV (cover photo worked as a journalist for various and images for Red Square, Moscow magazines, and as an page 28) was born and raised author of Moscow guidebooks. in Moscow. He began taking He is a member of the organiza- pictures at a young age and now tion, Moscow That Is No More, focuses most of his photographic which works to halt destruction of work on architecture and land- the capital’s architectural heritage. scapee, especially in Moscow. He has written several articles for His website is at sobio.ru. Russian Life, on everything from floating churches to Kremlin walls. 6 Russian Life | January/February 2015 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.