The Internet as a Space of Different Nostalgic Visions of the USSR by the Russian-speaking Internauts

Abstract

Nostalgia for the Soviet past has been relevant for more than three decades since the demise of the USSR in 1991. The first scholars who studied this phenomenon believed that it related to backward Soviet mentality typical of the old generations. However, with the passage of time it has become clear that young people also not only express interest in the Soviet legacy, but many of them clearly state that they have nostalgia for the USSR. Here, we encounter an intriguing question: can we contend that nostalgia may be provoked by the live experience only, or it can be a longing for the unexperienced past? Nowadays, there are many online nostalgic Russian-speaking communities that provide rich material for studying post-Soviet nostalgia. But Russian language should not be confused with “Russianness”. Moreover, as we go deeper into this topic, we understand that those people who are nostalgic for the USSR, experience longing for different aspects of the Soviet life, depending on their ethnic belonging. This study addresses the difference between Russians who long for the grandeur of the Soviet Union which was the most powerful and effective embodiment of the Russian empire, and the representatives of other nationalities who have another perspective on their Soviet past. This thesis deals a lot with the issue of values, because, as it is shown in the research, longing for socialism is not a matter of age, but rather a matter of values. The most essential point which is recalled by many nostalgic persons is aspiration for the future. Now Russia and other post-Soviet countries do not have a clear plan for the future, while the USSR provided its population with a goal for future development. On the other hand, many nostalgic subjects admit, that a unique spirituality that was embedded in Soviet life is lost. It is another paradox, because the Soviet state was atheist, and now in Russia and other former Soviet republics, religion plays a significant role, however, the decrease of morals in comparison to Soviet times is apparent. Therefore, this thesis discusses compatibility of Communist (socialist) values and religion. Many nostalgic subjects feel that the USSR was a bastion of science and technological advancement in comparison to the backward obscurantist Russia of today. They mourn the downfall of the USSR as a failed project of modernity. This is another important topic that is addressed in the thesis. This study is based on online ethnographies of a few nostalgic communities on three Russian-speaking internet platforms: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook. Initially, the focus of the study was on a group level of analysis, but the most valuable portion of this project turned out to be interviews conducted with individual participants of the studied communities. The research participants were from the following countries: Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian and Ukraine. The task of this research was to understand the nature of their nostalgia and to reveal their visions of the to-be-restored USSR. Depending on their worldviews (socialist/ non-socialist, nationalist/internationalist) the research participants provided very different and instructive pictures of this new potential unity which the researcher approached from the perspective of Benedict Anderson’s theory on imagined communities.