Russian Nationalism and Soviet Patriotism

• Discuss - using the example of Ivan IV (the Terrible) - the changed attitude of the Bolsheviks to the Russian past?
• Was Soviet Patriotism Russian Nationalism in disguise?
• How was the new role of the Russian nation reconciled with the concept of the “friendship of the nations” and socialist internationalism?
  

 

Sources

Internal Debate within the Party Hierarchy about the Rehabilitation of Ivan the Terrible, in Brandenberger/Platt, Epic Revisionism, pp. 179-189.

Essential Reading

Timasheff, Nicholas S., ‘”World Revolution or Russia”. From the Great Retreat’ (excerpts), in Ronald G. Suny (ed.), The Structure of Soviet History ( New York, Oxford, 2003), pp. 188-198.

Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire, pp. 394-461.

Brandenberger, David, and Platt, Kevin M.M., ‘Terribly Pragmatic’: Rewriting the History of Ivan IV’s Reign, 1937-1956’, in Brandenberger/Platt, Epic Revisionism, pp. 157-178.

Yekelchyk, Serhy, ‘Stalinist Patriotism as Imperial Discourse: Reconciling the Ukrainian and Russian “Heroic Pasts” 1939-1945’, Kritika, 3 (2002), pp. 51-80.

 

Additional Reading

Blitstein, Peter A., ‘Nation-Building or Russification? Obligatory Russian Instruction in the Soviet Non-Russian School, 1938-1953’, in Suny, A State of Nations, pp. 253-274.

Brandenberger, David, National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modern Russian National Identity, 1931-1956 (Cambridge, Mass., 2002)