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. At present, no replacement was found for her.
The emergence of the concept
The term "Soviet people" itself appeared and began to be actively used as early as the 1920s. In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev announced the new historical community of people in his speech at the XXII Congress of the CPSU. As distinguishing features, he noted the common socialist homeland, a single economic base, 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 layers and classes that inhabited the territory of the USSR. The concept itself was actively fueled by joint achievements, among which the victory in the Great Patriotic War and space exploration were considered as the main ones.
The Second World War
The victory of the Soviet people over fascism has become an important unifying factor, which they are trying to use to raise the patriotic spirit in modern Russia.
One of the main holidays was Victory Day, which is annually celebrated on May 9. Its history is interesting, since immediately after the war it remained a day off only until 1947. After that, the official day off was canceled and rescheduled for the New Year.
According to some popular versions, this initiative came from Stalin, who did not like the popularity of Marshal Zhukov, who actually personified a victory in the war.
The attributes of the holiday of victory of the Soviet people that are familiar in our time have been forming 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 World War II were limited to fireworks. At the same time, the whole country celebrated the holiday with veterans, not even paying attention to the absence of an official holiday.
Under Stalin and Khrushchev, the celebration of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was celebrated in almost the same scenario. Celebratory editorials appeared in central newspapers, gala evenings took place, and in all the major cities of the country they gave salutes, consisting of 30 artillery volleys. When Khrushchev ceased to praise at the same time Stalin, as well as the generals with whom the Secretary General was in a quarrel.
The first anniversary of the great victory of the Soviet people in 1955 was an ordinary working day. There was no military parade, although ceremonial meetings were organized in large cities. Mass festivities took place in parks and squares.
The second most important holiday for the entire Soviet people was Victory Day only in 1965, when they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the defeat of the fascist army (the anniversary of the October Revolution remained the most significant holiday).
Under Brezhnev, significant amendments were made to the ritual on May 9. They began to hold the Victory Parade on Red Square, and then a ceremonial reception in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, May 9 became an official day off, in 1967 the grave of an unknown soldier was opened.
Since then, the scale of the celebration has steadily increased. Since 1975, they began to spend a minute of silence throughout the country at exactly 18.50. Since the 60s, a tradition has appeared to hold parades not only in Moscow, but in all major cities of the Soviet Union. The military and cadets passed through the streets, flower-laying and rallies were organized.
Value
The victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was of great importance for national identity. World War II itself became the heaviest and largest in the history of all mankind. It was attended by more than one and a half billion people, residents of 61 states of the planet. Killed about fifty million.
In this case, the Soviet Union took the brunt of it. This war for the Soviet people became an opportunity to rally in front of the impending threat of destruction and enslavement. It is believed that the main sources of victory were the courage and heroism of soldiers and officers of the Red Army, as well as the labor feat of the rear 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 generally accepted that the Communist Party, to which there was confidence, played an important role in the war for the Soviet people.
Starting the war against the USSR, Hitler strongly hoped that serious contradictions and conflicts would arise in this multinational country. But these plans have 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 suffered a difficult test, when some began to be evicted from their ancestral lands on far-fetched charges. In 1941, the Volga Germans suffered such a fate , in 1943 and 1944 - Chechens, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Ingush, Balkars, Karachais, Greeks, Bulgarians, Koreans, Poles, and Meskhetian Turks.
Forgetting hatred of the Bolsheviks, representatives of the White movement, for example, Milyukov and Denikin, who opposed cooperation with the Germans, fought against fascist Germany in resistance movements in various European countries.
The significance of the victory of the Soviet people lies in preserving the independence and freedom of the Soviet Union, defeating fascism, expanding the borders of the USSR, changing the socio-economic system in many countries of Eastern Europe, saving 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, commanders and political workers of the Red Army, the unity of the rear and front, the possibility of a centralized directive economy, which relied on powerful natural and human resources, the heroic struggle of the underground and partisan formations, the organizational activities of the Communist Party in the field. Only thanks to this, 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, a third of national wealth was actually destroyed, more than one and a half thousand cities were destroyed, about seventy thousand villages and villages, factories, factories, mines, kilometers of railways were destroyed. Significantly reduced the proportion of the male population. For example, only three percent of the stronger sex born in 1923 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 existed in the country, similar regimes were established in some countries of Eastern Europe, which in fact fell under the control of the Soviet Union.
Heroes of different nationalities
Confirmation that representatives of different nationalities brought their contribution to the victory is also the list of heroes of the Soviet Union. Among the people who received this title following the results of the Great Patriotic War, there were immigrants from virtually all the peoples living on the territory of the USSR.
In total, during the period of the war, 11,302 people were awarded this title. Heroes of the Soviet Union are representatives of different nations. Most of all Russians are almost eight thousand people, more than two thousand Ukrainians, about three hundred Belarusians. At the same time, representatives of various nations were the heroes of the Soviet Union.
Another 984 titles fell on other nations. Of these, 161 Tatar, 107 Jews, 96 Kazakhs, ninety Georgians, 89 Armenians, 67 Uzbeks, 63 Mordvinians, 45 Chuvashs, 43 Azerbaijanis, 38 Bashkirs, 31 Ossetians, 18 Maris, 16 Turkmens, fifteen Tajiks and Lithuanians, twelve Kyrgyz each. and Latvians, ten Udmurts and Komi, ten Estonians, eight Karelians, six Adyghes and Kabardians, four Abkhazians, two Moldavians and a Yakut, one Tuvinian.
These lists were known, but they always did not include representatives of the Crimean Tatars and Chechens who were repressed. But there were representatives of these peoples as heroes of the Soviet Union. These are six Chechens and five Crimean Tatars, and Ametkhan Sultan was awarded this title twice. As a result, representatives of almost all peoples among the heroes of the Soviet Union can be found.
The peoples of the USSR
According to 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, as well as many small ones, were identified in the census. The latter included Yagnobians, Talyshs, Pamir Tajiks, rats, Batsbians, Budugs, Khinalugs, Dolgans, Livs, Oroks and many others.
The number of 19 peoples in the USSR exceeded one million people. The vast majority of the inhabitants were Russian (about 114 million) and Ukrainians (approximately 37 million). At the same time, there were separate nations, 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, one can distinguish several bright directions that laid its foundations. This is the Russian avant-garde, which has become one of the directions of modernism in our country. Its heyday came to the end of the Russian Empire and the birth of a new state - 1914 - 1922. The Russian avant-garde distinguishes several areas: this is the abstractionism of Vasily Kandinsky, the constructivism of Vladimir Tatlin, the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich, the organic direction of Mikhail Matyushin, the cube futurism of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
In the mid-50s, a movement began in Russian art, mainly in poetry and painting, which is known as the second Russian avant-garde. His appearance is associated with the Khrushchev thaw of 1955 and the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students, held in 1957 in Moscow. His most prominent representatives among artists were Eric Bulatov, Eli Belyutin, Boris Zhutovskoy, Lucian Gribkov, Vladimir Zubarev, Yuri Zlotnikov, Vladimir Nemukhin, Ilya Kabakov, Anatoly Safokhin, Dmitry Plavinsky, Boris Turetsky, Tamara Ter-Ghevondyan, Vladimir Yakovlev.
Socialist realism is firmly associated with the Soviet Union. This is an artistic method that has 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 referred to as socialist realists: Louis Aragon, Henri Barbusse, Bertolt Brecht, Martin Andersen-Nexe, Anna Zegers, Johannes Becher, Pablo Neruda, Maria Puymanova, Georges Amadou. Among domestic authors, Julia Drunin, Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Nosov, Nikolai Ostrovsky, Alexander Serafimovich, Konstantin Simonov, Alexander Fadeev, Konstantin Fedin, Mikhail Sholokhov, Vladimir Mayakovsky were distinguished.
In the 70s, the direction of postmodern art, known as social art, appeared in the USSR. It was intended to oppose the official ideology that existed at that time. In fact, it was a parody of official Soviet art, as well as images of mass culture that existed at that time. Representatives of this direction processed and used odious symbols, cliches and images of Soviet art, often in shocking and provocative forms. Its inventors are Alexander Melamid and Vitaly Komar.
Cultural revolution
The culture of the Soviet people was influenced by a set of measures that was aimed at radically restructuring the ideological life of society. His goal was the formation of a new type of culture, which implied the joint construction of a socialist society. For example, an increase among intellectuals of representatives of the proletariat.
The term "cultural revolution" appeared in 1917, Lenin first used it in 1923.
Its basis was the separation of the church from the state, the removal of religious-related objects from the educational system, the main task was to introduce the principles of Marxism and Leninism into the personal convictions 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 not only to educate and give 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.
Moreover, it is believed that education in the USSR was one of the best in the world, which laid the foundations for the formation of the great Soviet people.
Interestingly, its principles were formulated back in 1903 in the program of the Social Democratic Party. It was supposed to provide free universal education for children of both sexes under 16 years of age. At the very beginning, the problem of illiteracy was to be solved, since a significant part of the population, mainly peasants, could not read and write. Already by 1920, about three million people managed to teach literacy.
Based on decrees of 1918 and 1919, fundamental changes took place in the education system. Private schools were banned, free and joint education was introduced, schools were separated from churches, the physical punishment of children was abolished, the foundations of a system of public pre-school education appeared, new rules for admission to higher education 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 decreased significantly, as the whole country was in a demographic pit.
The 1977 Constitution of the USSR enshrined the right of any citizen to free education at all levels - from primary to higher. Excellent scholarships at institutes and universities were guaranteed a scholarship from the state. It was also guaranteed employment in the specialty 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 start from the age of 6. True, this system did not exist for long, already in 1988 vocational training in the ninth and tenth grades was recognized as optional, therefore, the need for specialized training in the seventh and eighth grades also disappeared.
Soviet life
The Soviet way of life is a common ideological cliche that denoted a typical form of group and individual life. In fact, these are economic, social, cultural and domestic circumstances that were characteristic of the vast majority of Soviet citizens.
An important part of Soviet life was the holidays. About one of the most important, we have already described in detail in this article. Also, a great place in the life of Soviet citizens was occupied by the New Year, the Festival of Spring and Labor on May 1, the Day of the Great Socialist October Revolution, the adoption of the Constitution, the birthday of Lenin, and many others.
The life of any people clearly characterizes the level of consumption. It is believed that the top of the consumer ideal for the middle class for many years remained a car, a refrigerator and furniture. At the same time, a private car for most of the inhabitants of the 1960s remained an impermissible luxury, which could be purchased only for unearned income.
Fashion was under the control of the Soviet regime. Almost immediately after the victory of the October Revolution, they sought to make clothes simpler and simpler than they were even during the time of the Russian Empire. One of the main innovations of the 20s was sports constructivism.
In the 30s there was a certain rollback in fashion to imperial times. Variegated and vibrant colors displace dark and plain, women polls begin to lighten hair. , , .
In the 70s, Indian saris and jeans were considered stylish. Among the intelligentsia begins the active wearing of sweaters, "turtleneck" in imitation of the cult American writer Ernest Hemingway. In the early 80s, knitted and denim clothes are replaced by shiny and satin fabrics, and fur is becoming fashionable.
Cultural preferences
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 itself began in 1919, when a decree on the nationalization of filmmaking was passed.
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, which 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 entrusted to create national film studios. In 1924, the first Soviet science fiction film was released - it was a tape by Yakov Protazanov Aelita, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy.
Shortly after World War II, 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, movie theaters were crowded, the industry brought substantial revenue to the state. During the thaw, the style has changed a bit: the amount of pathos has decreased, films have become more responsive to the concerns and needs of ordinary people.
Then came world success. In 1958, Mikhail Kalatozov’s military drama Cranes Are Flying became the only Russian film to win the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival. In 1962, the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival won the drama by Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivan's Childhood.
It is interesting that Soviet filmmakers actively collaborated not only with representatives of the socialist powers. Very successful collaborative projects have often been successful. The first of them is the Soviet-Finnish tale of 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, which were 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 media for different ages: Pioneer Truth, Murzilka, Komsomol Life.
There was a letter department in each editorial office, active work was conducted with readers, as a rule, they signaled the injustice of the local leadership. On the most pressing topics, correspondents traveled to the site to make detailed material. Local authorities were required to respond to critical articles.
At the same time, in 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 opened. The live broadcasts of the Central Television were very popular when a huge number of viewers gathered at the screens. The highest rated sports holidays were in Luzhniki, sports competitions, holiday concerts and ceremonial meetings; in the 60s, meetings with cosmonauts were regularly regularly held live.