Kolonitskii B., Matskevich M. The Memory of an “unused” Centenary of the Revolution in the Perception of the Russian Population. Revue des études slaves, 2019, vol. ÕÑ, no 1-2, pp. 17-29. DOI : 10.4000 ...

Abstract

The authors discuss a relation between the symbolic politics in Russia and public attitudes towards the Revolution of 1917. Main political actors have little used a resource of the anniversary of 2017. Along with other factors, a low interest of Russian citizens to this historical event may account for non-using of the anniversary resource. Public opinion polls and other data allow to draw a conclusion that the centennial of the Revolution did not become an important event. The article compares survey data to a set of expert interviews collected by the authors in 2017-2018. It shows that, regardless of social and political cleavages in Russia, an ‘anti-revolutionary consensus’ had emerged, among both public and  humanitarian intelligentsia, and the 1917 Revolution memory is not ‘hot’. State agencies and administration play a pivotal part in Russian symbolic politics, according to the overwhelming majority of either common people or intellectuals. All the other memory actors’ and agents’ performances are usually noticed and recognized within either professional or ideological communities.

Àâòîðû: