Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Tagged: Soviet Union

Clara Mattei, Austerity, and the Soviet Union

By Michel Wong. Clara Mattei might not have set out to write a Global History of austerity politics, but as a student of Global History, I find her framework of austerity as measured by the wage share very useful and would like to apply it in my own history writing. I just have one problem with it. Mattei’s framework is a framework for analysing capitalist societies, but history – even just modern history – has many examples of societies that cannot really be called capitalist. What I want to know is: can Mattei’s framework also be applied to non-capitalist societies? In the sections that follow, I shall try to test the limits of Mattei’s framework by seeing if it can be applied to one of modern history’s more important non-capitalist societies – the Soviet Union. 

Soviet Weaponry on a Pedestal: Military Equipment Monuments in the Time of the Russian War in Ukraine – Part 2

By Denys Shatalov and Mykola Homanyuk. The essay examines the role of military equipment monuments in Ukraine, particularly after the Full-Scale Invasion in 2022. Monuments, such as tanks and armored vehicles placed on pedestals, often erected to honor Soviet war efforts or display Soviet power, have been repurposed or impacted by the ongoing conflict. The authors explore how this Soviet tradition of memorialization has been intertwined with modern warfare, using both historical analysis and field observations, focusing on the war’s influence on these symbolic structures.

Soviet Weaponry on a Pedestal: Military Equipment Monuments in the Time of the Russian War in Ukraine – Part 1

By Denys Shatalov and Mykola Homanyuk. The essay examines the role of military equipment monuments in Ukraine, particularly during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Monuments, such as tanks and armored vehicles placed on pedestals, often erected to honor Soviet war efforts or display Soviet power, have been repurposed or impacted by the ongoing conflict. The authors explore how this Soviet tradition of memorialization has been intertwined with modern warfare, using both historical analysis and field observations, focusing on the war’s influence on these symbolic structures.

Enduring Through Liminality: Across and Beyond the Borders of Eastern Europe in the Wartime

By Julia Buyskykh. For decades, anthropologists have been studying borders and borderlands, concentrating on marginalised groups (whether minorities, migrants, or refugees), cross-border state relations, border shadow economies, and the multiple identities of populations settling along borders, whose silenced voices often contradict official state narratives of history, identities, and religion. In this article, the author reflects upon her own experience, entangling it with current anthropological scholarship, exploring the tragic semantics of being displaced and misplaced.

The Russian Orthodox Church and Modernity

By Regina Elsner. Russian Orthodoxy is often suspected to be pre or anti-modern because of its difficulties engaging with a plural and secular society – for example, when relating to democracy, human rights, or gender diversity. After the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church associated increasingly with the agenda of the political elites in Russia and other successor states of the Soviet Union.

Book Review: Despite Cultures. Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan

By Jeff Sahadeo, Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa Kassymbekova, Botakoz: Despite Cultures. Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 2016, ISBN 978-0-8229-6419-3, pp. 296.  This review was first...