The Soviet people is the civic identity of the inhabitants of the USSR. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, it was defined as a social, historical and international community of people who have a single economy, territory, culture, which is socialist in content, a common goal, which is to build communism. This identity was lost as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Currently, no replacement has been found for her.
The emergence of the concept
The very term "Soviet people" appeared and began to be actively used already in the 1920s. In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev announced the new historical community of people that had developed in his speech at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU. As distinctive features, he noted a common socialist homeland, a single economic base, a social class structure, a common worldview and goal,which is to build communism.
In 1971, the Soviet people was proclaimed the result of the ideological unity of all strata and classes that inhabited the territory of the USSR. The concept itself was actively fueled by joint achievements, among the main ones were the victory in the Great Patriotic War and space exploration.
World War II
The victory of the Soviet people over fascism has become an important unifying factor that they are trying to use to raise the patriotic spirit in modern Russia.
One of the main holidays was Victory Day, which is celebrated annually on May 9th. Its history is interesting, since immediately after the war it remained a non-working day only until 1947. After that, the official holiday was canceled and moved to the New Year.
According to some widespread versions, this initiative came from Stalin, who did not like the popularity of Marshal Zhukov, who actually personified victory in the war.
The attributes of the victory holiday of the Soviet people that are familiar in our time have been formed over the years. For example, the parade took place on June 24, 1945, after which it was not held for about 20 years. All this time, festive events dedicated to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War were limited to fireworks. At the same time, the whole country celebrated the holiday together with veterans, not even paying attention to the absence of an official day off.
Under Stalin and Khrushchev, the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was celebratedalmost the same scenario. Festive editorials appeared in the central newspapers, gala evenings were held, and salutes consisting of 30 artillery volleys were fired in all major cities of the country. Under Khrushchev, they stopped praising Stalin, as well as the generals with whom the general secretary was in a quarrel.
The first anniversary of the great victory of the Soviet people in 1955 was an ordinary working day. A military parade was not held, although ceremonial meetings were organized in major cities. Mass celebrations took place in parks and squares.
Victory Day became the second most important holiday for the entire Soviet people only in 1965, when they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi army (the most significant holiday was still the anniversary of the October Revolution).
Under Brezhnev, significant amendments were made to the May 9 ritual. They began to hold the Victory Parade on Red Square, and then a solemn reception in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, May 9 became an official day off, in 1967 the tomb of the unknown soldier was opened.
Since then, the scale of the celebration has steadily increased. Since 1975, they began to spend a moment of silence throughout the country at exactly 18.50. Since the 60s, a tradition has appeared to organize parades not only in Moscow, but in all major cities of the Soviet Union. Soldiers and cadets marched through the streets, flower laying and rallies were organized.
Meaning
The victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was of great importance for national identity. Second herselfthe world war became the most difficult and largest in the history of all mankind. More than one and a half billion people, residents of 61 states of the planet, took part in it. Approximately fifty million died.
At the same time, it was the Soviet Union that took the brunt of the blow. This war was an opportunity for the Soviet people to unite in the face of the looming threat of annihilation and enslavement. It is believed that the main sources of victory were the courage and heroism of the soldiers and officers of the Red Army, as well as the labor feat of home front workers and the art of commanders: Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky, Vasilevsky. The victory was also facilitated by the help of the allies - military and logistical. It is customary to assert that the communist party, in which there was trust, played an important role in the war for the Soviet people.
Having started the war against the USSR, Hitler strongly hoped that serious contradictions and conflicts would arise in a multinational country on this basis. But these plans failed. During the war years, about eighty national divisions were formed, and a small number of traitors were found among representatives of all peoples, without exception.
It is worth noting that the peoples of the Soviet Union during the war years suffered a hard test, when some were evicted from their ancestral lands on trumped-up charges. In 1941, such a fate befell the Volga Germans, in 1943 and 1944 - Chechens, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Ingush, Balkars, Karachais, Greeks, Bulgarians, Koreans, Poles, Meskhetian Turks.
Forgetting about the hatred of the Bolsheviks, in the resistance movements in different countriesEurope, representatives of the White movement fought against Nazi Germany, for example, Milyukov and Denikin, who opposed cooperation with the Germans.
The meaning of the victory of the Soviet people is to preserve the independence and freedom of the Soviet Union, defeat fascism, expand the borders of the USSR, change the socio-economic system in many countries of Eastern Europe, save Europe from the fascist yoke.
The key sources of victory in the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people were the rallying of the masses and heroism, the growing military art of commanders, generals and political workers of the Red Army, the unity of the rear and the front, the possibilities of a centralized directive economy, which relied on powerful natural and human resources, the heroic struggle of the underground and partisan formations, the organizational activity of the Communist Party in the field. It was only thanks to this that the Soviet people managed to defeat the Great Patriotic War.
At the same time, the price of victory was high. In total, about thirty million inhabitants of the USSR died, in fact, a third of the national we alth was destroyed, more than one and a half thousand cities, about seventy thousand villages and villages were destroyed, factories, factories, mines, kilometers of railway lines were destroyed. Significantly reduced the proportion of the male population. For example, of the representatives of the stronger sex born in 1923, only three percent survived, which for a long time influenced the demographic situation.
At the same time, Joseph Stalin used this war for his own purposes. He strengthened the totalitarian system that already existed in the country, similar regimes were established in some countries of Eastern Europe, which actually ended up under the control of the Soviet Union.
Heroes of different nationalities
The list of heroes of the Soviet Union also confirms that representatives of different nationalities contributed to the victory. Among the people who received this title following the results of the Great Patriotic War, there were actually people from all the peoples who lived on the territory of the USSR.
In total, 11,302 people were awarded this title during the war. Heroes of the Soviet Union - representatives of different peoples. Most of all Russians - almost eight thousand people, more than two thousand Ukrainians, about three hundred Belarusians. At the same time, representatives of various nations were heroes of the Soviet Union.
Another 984 titles went to other nations. Of these, 161 Tatars, 107 Jews, 96 Kazakhs, ninety Georgians, 89 Armenians, 67 Uzbeks, 63 Mordvins, 45 Chuvashs, 43 Azerbaijanis, 38 Bashkirs, 31 Ossetians, 18 Maris, 16 Turkmens, fifteen Tajiks and Lithuanians, twelve Kirghiz each and Latvians, ten Udmurts and Komi, ten Estonians, eight Karelians, six Adyghes and Kabardians, four Abkhazians, two Moldavians and Yakuts, one Tuvan.
These lists were known, but they always lacked representatives of the Crimean Tatars and Chechens who were repressed. But there were also representatives of these peoples heroes of the Soviet Union. These are six Chechens and five Crimean Tatars, and Amethan Sultanwas awarded this title twice. As a result, representatives of almost all nations can be found among the heroes of the Soviet Union.
Peoples of the USSR
According to the results of the 1959 census, it was found that more than 208 million people live in the country. At the same time, 109 large peoples of the Soviet Union were identified in the census, as well as many small ones. The latter included the Yagnobis, Talysh, Pamir Tajiks, Kryz, Batsbi, Budug, Khinalug, Dolgan, Liv, Orok and many others.
The number of 19 peoples in the USSR exceeded one million people. The vast majority of the inhabitants were Russians (about 114 million) and Ukrainians (about 37 million). At the same time, there were separate peoples, the number of which did not exceed one thousand people.
Culture
Culture in the country was given special attention. In the history of Soviet culture, several bright trends can be distinguished that laid its foundations. This is the Russian avant-garde, which has become one of the trends of modernism in our country. Its heyday came at the end of the Russian Empire and the birth of a new state - 1914 - 1922. There are several trends in the Russian avant-garde: Vasily Kandinsky's abstract art, Vladimir Tatlin's constructivism, Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism, Mikhail Matyushin's organic movement, and Vladimir Mayakovsky's Cubo-Futurism.
In the mid-50s, a movement began in Russian art, mainly in poetry and painting, which is known as the second Russian avant-garde. Its appearance is associated withKhrushchev thaw of 1955 and the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students, held in 1957 in Moscow. Its most prominent representatives among artists are Eric Bulatov, Eliy Belyutin, Boris Zhutovskoy, Lucian Gribkov, Vladimir Zubarev, Yuri Zlotnikov, Vladimir Nemukhin, Ilya Kabakov, Anatoly Safokhin, Dmitry Plavinsky, Boris Turetsky, Tamara Ter-Gevondyan, Vladimir Yakovlev.
Socialist realism is strongly associated with the Soviet Union. This is an artistic method that occupied a leading place in most countries of the socialist camp. It was a conscious concept of man and the world, which was due to the struggle to create a socialist society. Among his principles were ideology, nationality and concreteness. For example, in the USSR itself, many foreign authors were also classified as socialist realists: Louis Aragon, Henri Barbusse, Bertolt Brecht, Martin Andersen-Nexe, Anna Zegers, Johannes Becher, Pablo Neruda, Maria Puimanova, Jorge Amada. Among domestic authors, Yulia Drunina, Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Nosov, Nikolai Ostrovsky, Alexander Serafimovich, Konstantin Simonov, Alexander Fadeev, Konstantin Fedin, Mikhail Sholokhov, Vladimir Mayakovsky were singled out.
In the 1970s, a direction of postmodern art, known as Sots Art, appeared in the USSR. It was designed to counter the official ideology that existed at that time. In fact, it was a parody of official Soviet art, as well as images of the mass culture that existed at that time. Representatives of this direction processed and used odioussymbols, clichés and images of Soviet art, often in shocking and provocative form. Alexander Melamid and Vitaly Komar are considered its inventors.
Cultural Revolution
The culture of the Soviet people was influenced by a set of measures aimed at a radical restructuring of the ideological life of society. His goal was the formation of a new type of culture, which meant the joint construction of a socialist society. For example, the increase among the intellectuals of representatives of the proletariat.
The term "cultural revolution" itself appeared in 1917, Lenin first used it in 1923.
It was based on the separation of church and state, the removal of subjects related to religion from the education system, the main task was to introduce the principles of Marxism and Leninism into the personal beliefs of the great Soviet people.
Education
In the Soviet Union, education was directly related to the formation of personality traits and upbringing. The Soviet school was called upon not only to teach and provide relevant knowledge, but also to form communist beliefs and views, to educate the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism, high morality and proletarian internationalism.
At the same time, it is believed that education in the USSR was one of the best in the world, which laid the foundation for the formation of the great Soviet people.
Interestingly, its principles were formulated as early as 1903 in the program of the Social Democratic Party. Free universal education was supposed for children of both sexes up to 16 years. At the very beginning, the problem of illiteracy had to be solved, since a significant part of the population, mainly peasants, could not read and write. By 1920, about three million people had been taught to read and write.
Based on the decrees of 1918 and 1919, fundamental changes took place in the education system. Private schools were banned, free and co-education was introduced, schools were separated from churches, physical punishment of children was abolished, the foundations of a public preschool education system appeared, and new rules for admission to higher educational institutions were developed.
During the Great Patriotic War, about 82 thousand schools were destroyed and actually destroyed, in which approximately fifteen million people studied. In the 50s, the number of students dropped significantly, as the whole country was in a demographic hole.
The Constitution of the USSR of 1977 secured the right of any citizen to free education at all levels - from elementary to higher. Excellent students at institutes and universities were guaranteed scholarships from the state. It was also guaranteed employment in the speci alty for each graduate.
In the 80s, a reform was carried out, the result of which was the widespread introduction of eleven-year secondary education. At the same time, training was supposed to begin at the age of 6. True, this system did not last long, already in 1988, vocational training in the ninth and tenth grades was recognized as optional, therefore,there was no need for specialized education in the seventh and eighth grades.
Soviet life
The Soviet way of life is a common ideological cliché that denoted a typical form of group and individual life. In fact, these are economic, social, cultural and domestic circumstances that were typical for the vast majority of Soviet citizens.
Holidays were an important part of Soviet life. About one of the most important, we have already described in detail in this article. Also, a big place in the life of Soviet citizens was occupied by the New Year, the Spring and Labor Day on May 1, the Day of the Great Socialist October Revolution, the Day of the adoption of the constitution, Lenin's birthday and many others.
Life of any people clearly characterizes the level of consumption. It is believed that the car, refrigerator and furniture have been the pinnacle of the consumer ideal for the middle class for many years. At the same time, a personal car for most residents of the 60s remained an unaffordable luxury, which could only be purchased with unearned income.
Fashion was under the control of the Soviet government. Almost immediately after the victory of the October Revolution, they tried to make clothes simpler and more unpretentious than they were even during the time of the Russian Empire. One of the main novelties of the 20s was sports constructivism.
In the 30s there was a certain rollback in fashion to imperial times. Variegated and bright colors are replacing dark and monochromatic, women without exception begin to lighten their hair. During the Khrushchev thaw, the USSR penetrateswestern style, there is a subculture of dudes who dress simply provocatively.
In the 70s, Indian saris and jeans are considered stylish. Among the intelligentsia, active wearing of turtleneck jumpers begins in imitation of the cult American writer Ernest Hemingway. In the early 80s, knitwear and denim are being replaced by shiny and satin fabrics, fur is in vogue.
Cultural preference
The life of Soviet citizens was largely determined by cultural needs. In particular, literature, cinema, television and the press. For example, the official history of Soviet cinema began in 1919, when a decree on the nationalization of the film industry was adopted.
In the 1920s, there were many innovators in Soviet cinema, we can say that it developed in step with the times. The works of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, who influenced this art all over the world, were especially appreciated. The party leadership was actively engaged in the promotion of the film industry, already in 1923 in each republic it was instructed to create national film studios. In 1924, the first Soviet science fiction film was released - it was Yakov Protazanov's film "Aelita", an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Shortly after the Second World War, the Soviet Union entered into an ideological confrontation with the Western world, which actually lasted until the end of the 80s. At that time, the film industry was on the wave of success, cinemas were overcrowded, the industry brought substantial income to the state. During the thawthe style has changed somewhat: the amount of pathos has decreased, films have become more responsive to the concerns and needs of ordinary people.
Then the world success came. In 1958, Mikhail Kalatozov's military drama The Cranes Are Flying became the only domestic film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1962, Andrei Tarkovsky's drama "Ivan's Childhood" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
It is interesting that Soviet filmmakers actively collaborated not only with representatives of the socialist powers. Very successful joint projects often succeeded. The first of them is the Soviet-Finnish fairy tale by Alexander Ptushko "Sampo", which was released in 1959.
The Soviet press had a much greater influence on the mass consciousness of citizens than modern newspapers. All central publications were filled with highly professional journalists. Particular attention was paid to economic and political news prepared by people with relevant education and knowledge. The central publications had an extensive network of their own correspondents in all parts of the planet.
Specialized magazines existed in almost every area of public life. For example, these are the publications "Soviet Sport", "Theater", "Cinema", "Science and Life", "Young Technician". There were specialized mass media for different ages: Pionerskaya Pravda, Murzilka, Komsomolskayalife".
In each edition there was a department of letters, active work was carried out with readers, as a rule, they signaled the injustice of the leadership on the ground. Correspondents traveled to the site on the most sensitive topics to make detailed material. Local authorities were obliged to respond to critical articles.
At the same time, in terms of their printing level, Soviet publications were significantly inferior to Western ones.
Soviet television appeared in 1931. It was then that the first experimental transmission took place, it was still without sound. In 1939, the Moscow Television Center was opened. Live broadcasts of Central Television were very popular, when a huge number of viewers gathered at the screens. The most rated were sports festivals in Luzhniki, sports competitions, festive concerts and ceremonial meetings, in the 60s meetings with astronauts were regularly held live.
