On November 9, 1941, in his famous speech, the head of the communist Soviet Union, Stalin, invited the people of the country of Soviets to be inspired not only by the personality of Lenin, but also by the "courageous image of our great ancestors": Kutuzov, Suvorov, Donskoy, Nevsky, Minin and Pozharsky. Orthodox communists resented the list.
The people … will fight for Russia
In the early autumn of 1941, in his conversation with the American politician William Harriman, Stalin said that the people did not want to fight for the world revolution, but would probably fight for Russia.
Of course, after the summer campaign of 1941 it became clear that the communist ideology could not mobilize people and inspire them to confront the enemy. They need a more real and concrete goal than striving for the victory of the world revolution. The idea of a special mission, the struggle for freedom and justice, was much closer and more understandable to the people.
However, when interpreting certain words, it is important to remember their addressee. Already in September 1941, it was clear that it would be very difficult for the Soviet Union to win the war without the help of its allies. Therefore, Stalin hinted to the Americans that they would benefit from cooperation with the USSR. The States, however, waited and only in November joined our country to the Lend-Lease program, which not only brought good income to the United States, but also saved the lives of many Soviet soldiers.
However, the so-called Stalinist restoration by some historians began much earlier.
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War of textbooks on the history of the USSR
In 1934, a competition was organized in the Soviet Union to create the best history textbook for the Soviet school. Nikolai Bukharin, who was a member of the competition commission, considered it necessary to portray pre-revolutionary Russia exclusively as a "prison of peoples", in which education, science and any progress were hostile.
On Bukharin's recommendation, a textbook of contrasting history was written, in which everything revolutionary was painted in bright colors, and the pre-revolutionary was presented in a dark light. As a result, such historical figures as Minin and Pozharsky turned into "counter-revolutionaries" who served the destructive monarchical regime.
However, fortunately, this textbook did not win the competition, and students in grades 3-4 of secondary school received books written under the guidance of Andrey Vasilyevich Shestakov. They presented a less radical view of the history of Russia: the Soviet period was viewed as an organic continuation of the heroic pages of the life of Russia and the Russian Empire.
Prior to that, back in 1930, many historians were returned from exile, accused of sympathizing with monarchism. Among them - S. V. Bakhrushin, S. B. Veselovsky, Yu. V. Gauthier, E. V. Tarle and others.
In 1937, Stalin's political position changed somewhat - towards the condemnation of the left deviation. In particular, in accordance with the new orientation, a reassessment of certain events in history was carried out, especially such as the baptism of Rus, diplomatic agreements between Alexander Nevsky and the Golden Horde, the annexation of Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the harsh suppression of the revolts by Peter I.
It was in 1937 that the film "Peter the First" opened a series of epic films that not only told about the heroic pages of Russian history, but also showed the strength of the characters and the genius of Russian commanders. The following year, the film "Alexander Nevsky" appeared on Soviet screens, in 1939, "Minin and Pozharsky" appeared, a year later - "Suvorov". The filmmaking did not stop even during the war: the films "Kutuzov" and "Ivan the Terrible" were shot.
Historical speech
In November 1941, our country was in an extremely difficult situation: the Germans occupied many western territories, Leningrad was under blockade for the third month already, and a serious battle was going on for Moscow.
To raise the spirit of the people, Stalin decided to hold a parade on Red Square on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. But in his speech addressed to Soviet citizens, the leader did not dwell on the teachings of Marx, but spoke about the special liberation mission of the Russian people, which is called upon to save enslaved Europe. Stalin appealed to historical memory:
"Let the courageous image of our great ancestors - Alexander Nevsky, Dimitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dimitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov, inspire you in this war!"
It is important that this message was heard not only by those who were at that moment on Red Square, but also by all the inhabitants of the Soviet Union, as well as its allies and enemies.
The Russian people are tsarist
According to the historian Vardan Baghdasaryan, Stalin's model of state administration was built according to Caesarian formulas, and the principle of leaderism, which was the basis of the political regime, restored de facto monarchical power, devoid of the outward gloss of the Tsarskoye Selo period.
There is evidence that already in the 1920s, Stalin talked about the special worldview of the Russian people, who "love it when one person is at the head of the state."
Under Stalin, the country underwent not so much the reconstruction of the monarchical system as the rehabilitation of individual historical representatives of the supreme power. And it's not only about Dmitry Donskoy and Alexander Nevsky, but also about Ivan the Terrible, whom the Soviet leader called his teacher.
In his recommendations for Sergei Ezenstein, who shot the film "Ivan the Terrible", Stalin wrote that the wisdom of this tsar was to prevent foreigners from entering Russia and to protect the state from foreign influence.
This idea formed the basis of the Stalinist policy of deportation of peoples and dismissal from the army of representatives of foreign nationalities.
It is not surprising that in his toast on the occasion of the Victory, the leader emphasized the role of the people, who are the creators of history, and noted that the main burden of the war fell precisely on the shoulders of the Russians.
So, apparently, Stalin was building a new empire, where there was no admiration for the West, and everything Russian was put at the forefront. Proof of this is the fact that the guard was revived, military orders appeared, abortion became a criminal offense, and in 1943 the patriarchate was restored and the Comintern was dissolved; moreover, in the new national anthem, words about great Russia sounded, and in all the annexed republics, the Latin and Arabic letters were replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet.
No matter how contradictory the figure of Stalin was, it is obvious that the former revolutionary had his own view of the development of the Soviet Union, far from Marxism-Leninism, and therefore, in particular, he focused on the heroic deeds of figures of the past, despite the fact that their political and religious beliefs ran counter to the ideology of the Soviet era.
Olga Ikonnikova
