Tselykovsky, A. Yashina, K. (2025). Unrealized Utopia: Specificity of Images of the Soviet Past in the Russian Media Environment – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

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Aleksey A. TSELYKOVSKY
Lipetsk State Technical University
30, Moskovskaya street, Lipetsk, 398055, Russian Federation
Associate professor of the Department of Philosophy and Social Communications
PhD in Philosophy
e-mail: alts1085@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-2442-5463

Kristina A. YASHINA
Lipetsk State Technical University
30, Moskovskaya street, Lipetsk, 398055, Russian Federation
Junior researcher at the Scientific Research Institute
e-mail: yashina_ka@stu.lipetsk.ru
ORCID: 0009-0008-8042-1871

Tselykovsky, A. Yashina, K. (2025). Unrealized Utopia: Specificity of Images of the Soviet Past in the Russian Media Environment

Abstract: This article explores the representation of the USSR in contemporary Russian media as an unrealized utopia, whose mythologized and idealized features are actively constructed within the media space. The aim of the study is to examine how utopian media images of the Soviet Union in historical memory substitute critical reflection with mythologized narratives about a "possible future." The researcher's interest in the specifics of images of the USSR in various media is determined by the political orientation of the Soviet legacy within Russian ideological and sociopolitical practice. The process of constructing utopian media images of the USSR is examined through an analysis of mythmaking, nostalgia, and cultural trauma, which transform traumatic experience into the basis for constructing compensatory images of a "different past." Specifically, in identifying the role of nostalgia in the formation of images of the Soviet past, the study draws on fundamental principles established in the works of philologist and anthropologist S. Boym. In his work, S. Boym demonstrated the presence of several types of nostalgia in the social order, each serving a different function. Research devoted to the study of cultural trauma played a particularly important role in this study. In this regard, considerations such as those by J. Alexander and P. Sztompka allow us to establish the distinct characteristics of the phenomenon of cultural trauma and its impact on historical memory in post-Soviet Russia. Furthermore, the concept of postmemory, proposed by M. Hirsch, was utilized in the process. Analyzing the phenomenon of postmemory, M. Hirsch noted that its functioning requires intermediaries, whose functions can be performed by both individuals and various media. The work also utilized the concept of presentism (F. Hartog), that is, a temporal regime that focuses attention on the contemporary historical moment, subordinating the past to the present. As the study demonstrated, utopian media images of the Soviet past, broadcast by the media environment, can be viewed as a tool for reflecting on the history of the Soviet Union. However, these media images do not hinder the processing of cultural trauma, which concerns society’s imaginary overcoming of it through the revision of the Soviet project as an unrealized utopia.

Key words: utopia, media, media image, historical memory, cultural trauma, nostalgia, post-memory, presentism, myth-making, USSR.Gudimova, S., ed. (2021). Fenomeny utopii v obshchestvennom poryadke i kul'ture. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov [The Phenomenon of Utopia in Public Consciousness and Culture. Collection of scientific papers]. Moscow: INION RAN, 283. (In Russian). Kaspe, I. (2018). V soyuze s utopiyey. Smyslovyye rubezhi pozdnesovetskoy kul'tury [In Union with Utopia. Smyslovye rubezhi late-Soviet culture]. Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 432. (In Russian). Fomenko, A.P. (2022). Utopiya v poiskakh sub"yekta, sub"yekt v poiskakh utopii [Utopia in search of the subject, the subject in search of utopia]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Tomsk State University]. 478. 58–63. DOI 10.17223/15617793/478/7. (In Russian). Nikulina, Y.A., Rymareva, E.N. (2023). Utopiya kak sotsiokul'turnyy fenomen: tipy i vidy form utopiy [Utopia as a sociocultural phenomenon: types and kinds of positive utopias]. Filologicheskiy aspekt [Philological Aspect]. 149–156. (In Russian). Khochunskaya, L.V. (2013). Fenomen mediaobraza: sotsial'no-psikhologicheskiy aspekt [The phenomenon of media image: a socio-psychological aspect]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Literaturovedeniye. Zhurnalistika [Bulletin of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Series: Literary Studies. Journalism]. 91–95. (In Russian). Marushchak, A.V. (2012). Politiko-sotsial'nyy obraz Rossii v amerikanskom mediaprostranstve [The political and social image of Russia in the American media space]. Zhurnalistskiy yezhegodnik [Journalistic Yearbook]. 93–96. (In Russian). Gureeva, A.N., Kireeva, P.A. (2022). Formirovaniye mediaobraza gosudarstva v kontekste mediatizatsii politicheskoy kommunikatsii [The formation of the media image of the state in the context of the mediatization of political communication]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Literaturovedeniye. Zhurnalistika [Bulletin of the Moscow University. Episode 10: Journalism]. 28–56. DOI 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2022.2856. (In Russian). Assmann, A. (2023). Dlinnaya ten' proshlogo [The Long Shadow of the Past]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 328. (In Russian). Ryazanova, Z.I., ed. (2011). Nostal'giya po sovetskomu [Nostalgia for the Soviet]. Tomsk: Izdatel'stvo Tomskogo universiteta, 514. (In Russian). Boym, S. (2021). Budushcheye nostal'gii [The Future of Nostalgia]. Neprikosnovenny zapas [Emergency reserve]. 116–132 (In Russian). Alexander, J. (2012). Kul'turnaya travma i kollektivnaya identichnost' [Cultural trauma and collective identity]. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal [Sociological Journal]. 5–40. (In Russian). Sztompka, P. (2001). Sotsial'noye izmeneniye kak travma: (stat'ya pervaya) [Social change as trauma: (article one)]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 6–16. (In Russian). Hirsch, M. (2021). Pokolenie postpamyati. Pis’mo i vizual’naya kul’tura posle Holokosta [The Generation of Postmemory. Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust]. Moscow: Novoe izdatel’stvo, 428. (In Russian). Authors. (2025). Zdes' byl SSSR: Povesti i rasskazy [The USSR Was Here: Stories and Short Stories]. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 448 (In Russian). Batchenko, V.S. (2024). Sovetskaya kosmicheskaya istoriya: konteksty, istochniki, zhanry [Soviet space history: contexts, sources, genres]. Moscow, St. Petersburg: Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 286. (In Russian). Gerovich, V. (2024). Mifologiya sovetskogo kosmosa [Mythology of Soviet Space]. Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 328. (In Russian).

References:

Gudimova, S., ed. (2021). Fenomeny utopii v obshchestvennom poryadke i kul’ture. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov [The Phenomenon of Utopia in Public Consciousness and Culture. Collection of scientific papers]. Moscow: INION RAN, 283. (In Russian).
Kaspe, I. (2018). V soyuze s utopiyey. Smyslovyye rubezhi pozdnesovetskoy kul’tury [In Union with Utopia. Smyslovye rubezhi late-Soviet culture]. Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 432. (In Russian).
Fomenko, A.P. (2022). Utopiya v poiskakh sub”yekta, sub”yekt v poiskakh utopii [Utopia in search of the subject, the subject in search of utopia]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Tomsk State University]. 478. 58–63. DOI 10.17223/15617793/478/7. (In Russian).
Nikulina, Y.A., Rymareva, E.N. (2023). Utopiya kak sotsiokul’turnyy fenomen: tipy i vidy form utopiy [Utopia as a sociocultural phenomenon: types and kinds of positive utopias]. Filologicheskiy aspekt [Philological Aspect]. 149–156. (In Russian).
Khochunskaya, L.V. (2013). Fenomen mediaobraza: sotsial’no-psikhologicheskiy aspekt [The phenomenon of media image: a socio-psychological aspect]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Literaturovedeniye. Zhurnalistika [Bulletin of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Series: Literary Studies. Journalism]. 91–95. (In Russian).
Marushchak, A.V. (2012). Politiko-sotsial’nyy obraz Rossii v amerikanskom mediaprostranstve [The political and social image of Russia in the American media space]. Zhurnalistskiy yezhegodnik [Journalistic Yearbook]. 93–96. (In Russian).
Gureeva, A.N., Kireeva, P.A. (2022). Formirovaniye mediaobraza gosudarstva v kontekste mediatizatsii politicheskoy kommunikatsii [The formation of the media image of the state in the context of the mediatization of political communication]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Literaturovedeniye. Zhurnalistika [Bulletin of the Moscow University. Episode 10: Journalism]. 28–56. DOI 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2022.2856. (In Russian).
Assmann, A. (2023). Dlinnaya ten’ proshlogo [The Long Shadow of the Past]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 328. (In Russian).
Ryazanova, Z.I., ed. (2011). Nostal’giya po sovetskomu [Nostalgia for the Soviet]. Tomsk: Izdatel’stvo Tomskogo universiteta, 514. (In Russian).
Boym, S. (2021). Budushcheye nostal’gii [The Future of Nostalgia]. Neprikosnovenny zapas [Emergency reserve]. 116–132 (In Russian).
Alexander, J. (2012). Kul’turnaya travma i kollektivnaya identichnost’ [Cultural trauma and collective identity]. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal [Sociological Journal]. 5–40. (In Russian).
Sztompka, P. (2001). Sotsial’noye izmeneniye kak travma: (stat’ya pervaya) [Social change as trauma: (article one)]. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 6–16. (In Russian).
Hirsch, M. (2021). Pokolenie postpamyati. Pis’mo i vizual’naya kul’tura posle Holokosta [The Generation of Postmemory. Writing and Visual Culture after the Holocaust]. Moscow: Novoe izdatel’stvo, 428. (In Russian).
Authors. (2025). Zdes’ byl SSSR: Povesti i rasskazy [The USSR Was Here: Stories and Short Stories]. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 448 (In Russian).
Batchenko, V.S. (2024). Sovetskaya kosmicheskaya istoriya: konteksty, istochniki, zhanry [Soviet space history: contexts, sources, genres]. Moscow, St. Petersburg: Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 286. (In Russian).
Gerovich, V. (2024). Mifologiya sovetskogo kosmosa [Mythology of Soviet Space]. Moscow: Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye, 328. (In Russian).

For Citation:

Tselykovsky, A. Yashina, K. (2025). Unrealized Utopia: Specificity of Images of the Soviet Past in the Russian Media Environment. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (61). 50–62. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_4_50

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_4_50