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The Rustic Turn during Late Socialism and the Popular Movement against Soviet Rule

Davoliūtė, Violeta and Rudling, Odeta LU (2023) In Canadian Slavonic Papers 65(1). p.30-51
Abstract
The success of mass mobilization in Lithuania against Soviet rule in the late 1980s can be attributed in part to the spread of the ethnographic movement in the post-Stalin era. Characterized in this paper as the “rustic turn,” it began in the late 1950s with the rehabilitation of kraevedenie (local area studies), part of Khrushchev’s effort to rejuvenate grassroots political participation across the USSR. In Lithuania, the rehabilitation of kraštotyra had the unintended consequence of restoring nation-building practices from the interwar period and reintegrating individuals repressed under Stalin into public life. Rather than shaping Soviet subjects, the ethnographic movement developed rituals of transformation that imbued the rustic... (More)
The success of mass mobilization in Lithuania against Soviet rule in the late 1980s can be attributed in part to the spread of the ethnographic movement in the post-Stalin era. Characterized in this paper as the “rustic turn,” it began in the late 1950s with the rehabilitation of kraevedenie (local area studies), part of Khrushchev’s effort to rejuvenate grassroots political participation across the USSR. In Lithuania, the rehabilitation of kraštotyra had the unintended consequence of restoring nation-building practices from the interwar period and reintegrating individuals repressed under Stalin into public life. Rather than shaping Soviet subjects, the ethnographic movement developed rituals of transformation that imbued the rustic ethnic past, not the Soviet future, with the aura of sacrality. Vigilantly depoliticized, the movement nevertheless cultivated strong associative ties among citizens from various walks of life. With the outbreak of free discussion under glasnost’, mass gatherings built upon the rituals of the ethnographic movement to generate a community of affect grounded in nostalgia for a lost, mythical past and the trauma of displacement under the Soviet regime. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Canadian Slavonic Papers
volume
65
issue
1
pages
30 - 51
publisher
Princeton University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85153098631
ISSN
0008-5006
DOI
10.1080/00085006.2023.2172302
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fb57b145-74d8-472f-8e63-f396d7ef9238
date added to LUP
2023-02-07 19:40:03
date last changed
2023-07-17 14:56:44
@article{fb57b145-74d8-472f-8e63-f396d7ef9238,
  abstract     = {{The success of mass mobilization in Lithuania against Soviet rule in the late 1980s can be attributed in part to the spread of the ethnographic movement in the post-Stalin era. Characterized in this paper as the “rustic turn,” it began in the late 1950s with the rehabilitation of kraevedenie (local area studies), part of Khrushchev’s effort to rejuvenate grassroots political participation across the USSR. In Lithuania, the rehabilitation of kraštotyra had the unintended consequence of restoring nation-building practices from the interwar period and reintegrating individuals repressed under Stalin into public life. Rather than shaping Soviet subjects, the ethnographic movement developed rituals of transformation that imbued the rustic ethnic past, not the Soviet future, with the aura of sacrality. Vigilantly depoliticized, the movement nevertheless cultivated strong associative ties among citizens from various walks of life. With the outbreak of free discussion under glasnost’, mass gatherings built upon the rituals of the ethnographic movement to generate a community of affect grounded in nostalgia for a lost, mythical past and the trauma of displacement under the Soviet regime.}},
  author       = {{Davoliūtė, Violeta and Rudling, Odeta}},
  issn         = {{0008-5006}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{30--51}},
  publisher    = {{Princeton University Press}},
  series       = {{Canadian Slavonic Papers}},
  title        = {{The Rustic Turn during Late Socialism and the Popular Movement against Soviet Rule}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00085006.2023.2172302}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/00085006.2023.2172302}},
  volume       = {{65}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}