“Imagological restructuring”: specifics of the cultural policy of the USSR in the mid-1980s – early 1990s
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2024-2-38-50
Abstract
The article examines the phenomenon of “imagological restructuring”. The main sources were journalistic and audiovisual materials – books, brochures, periodicals and other popular science publications, as well as films. The novelty of the research lies in the qualitative rethinking and conceptualization of this source base through the imagological approach, the results of the latest research in the field of symbolic politics and the politics of memory. It is shown that the systemic factors of that process were: the internal political course of the USSR initiated by M.S. Gorbachev and being moved towards the loosening of the political control over culture and de-ideologization; negotiation process at the international level; transition to the “cool world”. The author has set the frames of a conditional periodization. At the first stage (1985–1987/88), journalism and cinematography retained the inertia of the “old” discourse; the media “Cold War” and the exposure of the “American imperialism” continued. At the second stage (1987/88–1991), there was a progressive change in the optics of perceptions and representations: the transformation of the image of the United States from an enemy to a partner, including through the transfer of the image of an ally from the countries of Eastern Europe to the United States – rehumanization and rehabilitation of the “former ours”/“strangers”. Conclusions are drawn that perestroika contributed to the improvement of the Soviet-American relations, the constructive renewal of a collective memory, the neutralization of stereotypes, and the end of the “Cold War”. Moreover, all that became a political and imagological defeat of the USSR, expressed in the delegitimation of socialism and the Soviet national-state identity.
Supporting agencies: This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant № 22-18-00305, https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00305/ “The images of enemy in Cold War popular culture: their content, contemporary reception and usage in Russian and U.S. symbolic politics”.
About the Author
K. A. Yudin
Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology; Herzen University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Kirill A. Yudin, Cand. of Sci. (History), associate professor; grant executor
27, Sheremetevsky Av.,Ivanovo, 153000
48, Moika Emb., Saint Petersburg, 191186
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For citations:
Yudin K.A. “Imagological restructuring”: specifics of the cultural policy of the USSR in the mid-1980s – early 1990s. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin Series "Political Science. History. International Relations". 2024;(2):38-50. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2024-2-38-50
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