Pushkin’s Anniversary 1937 for the Young Combatants of the Great Patriotic War – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

Download article

Irina V. VOLKOVA
National Research University Higher School of Economics
21/4, Staraya Basmannaya str., Moscow, 105066, Russian Federation
Professor
Professor; Doctor of Science (History)
e-mail: wolkowa-irina@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-4835-8082

Pushkin’s Anniversary 1937 for the Young Combatants of the Great Patriotic War

Abstract: The article highlights the role of Pushkin's jubilee of 1937 in the development of the young front-line generation of the USSR. Introduced in 1937 for the most part by schoolchildren, it has taken a privileged position in commemorative events and their main beneficiary. The reduction of the hierarchical and ideological distance between the “anniversary” and his young admirers, their initiatory initiation into the Pushkin cult, largely predetermined the identity built on the feeling of personal and generational chosenness. Like Pushkin, crowned with the laurels of a victor over his enemies and time, the representatives of this generation saw themselves in a triumphal halo even before the first volleys of war thundered. In the hope of being a post-mortem, which was inspired by Pushkin's precedent, many, even before the circumstances justifying this, aspired to mythologizing their lives and turning it into a "place of memory." The transformation of Pushkin's legacy into a sacred symbol of national culture and the deification of the poet himself were of great importance for this generation. Unannounced, but no less clear for that, it also spilled over to his admirers from the “young tribe”. Bringing them as close as possible to the poet, the anniversary made everyone a little "Pushkin", and, therefore, partly a superman.

Key words: young generation, commemorative practices, feeling of exclusivity.

References:

Gurkina,K. (2021). Simvolika pushkinskogo yubileya 1937 goda[Symbolism of Pushkin’s anniversary in 1937]. Obshchestvennaya atmosfera nakanune vojn XIX-XX vv.: istoriko-psihologicheskie aspekty: materialy XLIX Mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferencii.SPb.:ООО«Poltorak». Р.125–132. (In Russian)
Karpenko,YU. Karpenko L.B. (2016) YUbilejnye «yazykovye klishe» o Pushkine, ili poet na sluzhbe gosudarstva [Anniversary “linguistic clichés” about Pushkin, or the poet in the service of the state]. Vestnik Samarskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta Istoriya, pedagogika, literaturovedenie, yazykoznanie. 4. 72–79.(In Russian)
Маlinovskaya,(2015) Teaching Russian Classics In Secondary School Under Stalin (1936–1941). Doctor Diss.Trinity Term. 374.
Slater, (1999) “The Patriots’ Pushkin”. Slavic Review.2. 407–427.
Nikolaev,M. Popov,E.A. (2021) Literaturnye yubilei v SSSR i praktiki kommemoracii v stalinskoj kul’ture [Literary anniversaries in the USSR and the practice of commemoration in Stalinist culture]. Izvestiya Ural’skogo federal’nogo universiteta. Ser. 1. Problemy obrazovaniya, nauki i kul’tury. 4. 106–114. (In Russian)
SHlegel’, (2011) Terror i mechta. Moskva 1937[Terror and Dream. Moscow 1937] Moscow, ROSSPEN.741. (In Russian)
Druzhnikov, (1993) Pushkin, Stalin i drugie poety[Pushkin, Stalin and other poets]: https://www.druzhnikov.com/text/rass/duel/9.html (In Russian)
Brandenberger,L. (2009)Nacional-bol’shevizm. Stalinskaya massovaya kul’tura i formirovanie russkogo nacional’nogo soznaniya[National Bolshevism. Stalinist mass culture and the formation of Russian national consciousness]St. Petersburg, Akademicheskij proekt. (In Russian) 416.
Mozhegov,I. (2018) Ideologiya bogostroitel’stva kak osnovanie kul’ta A. S. Pushkina v SSSR[The ideology of God-building as the basis of the cult of A. S. Pushkin in the USSR] YAroslavskij pedagogicheskij vestnik. 4. 288–292. (In Russian)
Molok, (2000) Pushkin v 1937 godu[Pushkin in 1937] Moscow, Novoye Literaturnoe Obosrenie 266. (In Russian)
Platt Dzh. B. (2017) ”Zdravstvuj, Pushkin!” Stalinskaya kul’turnaya politika i russkij nacional’nyj poet[Greetings, Pushkin!” Stalin’s cultural policy and the Russian national poet] St. Petersburg, Izdatelstvo Evropeiskogo Universiteta. 352. (In Russian)
Dobrenko, (1997) Formovka sovetskogo chitatelya. Social’nye i esteticheskie predposylki recepcii sovetskoj literatury[Formation of the Soviet reader. Social and aesthetic prerequisites for the reception of Soviet literature] Moscow, Akadcheskij Proekt.321. (In Russian)
Kirschenbaum,A. (2001) Small Comrades. Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917–1932.Routledge, New York.232.
Weiner, (2002) Making Sense of Revolution. The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution. Princeton University Press. 432.
Krasil’nikov,A. (2013) 1930-j god kak prolog bol’shogo terror [1930 as a prologue to the Great Terror] Istoriya stalinizma: zhizn’ v terrore. Social’nye aspekty repressij.Moscow, ROSSPEN.112-119. (In Russian)
Kruglova,A. (2013) Antropologicheskie transformacii i hudozhestvennye reprezentacii zhizni v terrore: strah i entuziazm kak motivy socrealizma[Anthropological transformations and artistic representations of life in terror: fear and enthusiasm as the motives of socialist realism]. Istoriya stalinizma: zhizn’ v terrore. Social’nye aspekty repressij.Moscow, ROSSPEN.226-236. (In Russian)
Ivanov,P. (2012) Beregite, sobirajte Pushkina. On “sobiral Rossiyu…” Mogila Pushkina i Svyatogorskij monastyr’ do i posle yubilejnyh torzhestv 1937 goda (po stranicam zapisi knig-vpechatlenij muzeya-zapovednika[Take care, collect Pushkin. He “gathered Russia…”Pushkin’s grave and the Svyatogorsky monastery before and after the anniversary celebrations of 1937 (according to the pages of the museum’s impression books]. Pskov. V. 37. 212–221. (In Russian)
Torchinov, (2005) Religii mira: opyt zapredel’nogo. Psihotekhnika i transpersonal’nye sostoyaniya[Religions of the World: Experience of the Beyond. Psychotechnics and transpersonal states]St. Petersburg, Azbuka-Klassika.536. (In Russian)
Eliade, (2012) Istoriya very i religioznyh idej ot Gautamy Buddy do triumfa hristianstva[History of Faith and Religious Ideas from Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity] Moscow, Akademicheskij proekt. 676. (In Russian)
Klark, K. (2002) Sovetskij roman. Istoriya kak ritual.[Soviet novel. History as ritual] – Ekaterinburg: izdatel’stvo Ural’skogo universiteta URL: https://flibusta.org.ua/b/578415 (In Russian)
Maslinskaya, S.G. (Leont’eva)(2011). ZHizn’ posle smerti: pionery-geroi v sovremennoj mul’tiplikacii. [Life after death. Pioneer heroes in modern animation].Konstruiruya detskoe: filologiya, istoriya, antropologiya/ M.R. Balina, V.G. Bezrogov, S.G. Maslinskaya. –M.-SPb: Nestor-Istoriya. 254–265. (In Russian)
Kanetti, E. (2020) Massa i vlast’[Mass and power] Moscow: AST. (In Russian)
Haeng Guy Choi, Andrei D. Stepanov (2022). «Pushkinovernie» v tvorchestve Tat’yany Tolstoj [Pushkin believers” in the work of Tatyana Tolstaya] /RUSLIT 1184. Journal: Pre-Proof. DOI: http: doi.org/10/1016/j.ruslit/2202.02.004 (In Russian)
Omori, (2014) Tvorchestvo M.A. Bulgakova v sovetskom kul’turnom kontekste 1930-h: obraz A.S. Pushkina i motiv bessmertiya hudozhnika[Creativity M.A. Bulgakov in the Soviet cultural context of the 1930s: the image of A.S. Pushkin and the motif of the artist’s immortality]. Novyj filologicheskij vestnik. 1. 70–81. (In Russian)
Gajlit, (2012). Religiya v «molodom» obshchestve: zametki o stanovlenii sovetskoj povsednevnosti [Religion in the “young society: notes on the formation of Soviet everyday life]. Antropologicheskij forum. 16. 288–308. (In Russian)

For Citation:

Volkova, I. Pushkin’s Anniversary 1937 for the Young Combatants of the Great Patriotic War. International Journal of Cultural Research, 3 (48). 130–149. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_3_130

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_3_130