Revolution among the dead
Cemeteries in twentieth-century Russia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15082693 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Merridale (University of Bristol, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 176-188 |
| Publication date | 2003-05-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mortality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-6275 • E-ISSN: 1469-9885 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1357627031000087415 |
| OpenAlex | W2004383496 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 3 |
This essay, which focuses on European Russia, explores the impact of social and political revolution upon the rites of death, and specifically upon the cemetery and its ritual uses. Russia has seen three revolutions since 1900. The first, in 1917-21, culminated in the establishment of Bolshevik rule. The latest, in 1986-91, dismantled Soviet power. The third was the social and economic upheaval of industrialization. All three had implications for the rites of death. It is argued that the dead are crucial to revolutions, as new regimes see ancestors, founders, and revolutionary martyrs as sources of legitimation. But although new rites were introduced, mourners were generally slow to adopt them. Two factors helped to consolidate a Soviet way of death. The Great Patriotic War was crucial, as it forced the consciousness of death and the urgency of mourning ritual upon entire populations. Generational change also played a part. The Soviet way of death is so deeply-embedded, now, in the consciousness of older people that they are reluctant to adopt the revived 'traditionalism' of post-Soviet Russia. Meanwhile, the link between public styles of commemoration and the reality of collective memory is demonstrated by the fact that the war dead are officially remembered but the victims of political repression have been buried almost without trace
Collective memory · Consciousness · Industrialisation · Legitimation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Citations per year | 0.38 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2005 - 2024 (20) |
| Highly cited | No |