Books by Olga Velikanova
Planting Parliaments in Eurasia, 1850–1950 Edition1st Edition, 2021
I suggest here my interpretation of sham nature of democratic institutions under Stalinism – elec... more I suggest here my interpretation of sham nature of democratic institutions under Stalinism – elections, constitution, soviets, and the Supreme Soviet – focusing on the constitution of 1936 but in larger historical national context. I argue that Stalin and the government succumbed to self-deception about successful socialist transformation of economy and society by the mid-1930s. They were dogmatically attached to Lenin’s vision of future socialist state (in the State and Revolution and later works) and subsequent full-fledged democracy, including Lenin’s critique of bourgeois parliamentarianism and his dreams about future forms of representative institutions. However, clash of this utopian thinking with reality on the ground and resulting conditions of recurring crisis made Soviet democracy a sham. The 1930s developments are placed in historical context of nominal Russian constitutionalism in the twentieth century from the token nature of 1906 reform exemplified in the first Dumas. In long term, this token nature is explained by duality of Russian life: a gap between representation and practice, between an ideal/intention (modernization by Peter the Great or Stalin) and pressure of reality in a backward country. This gap was probably a product, among other factors, of belated and “catch-up” mode of Russian modernization.
Quaestio Rossica · Vol. 8 № 2,, 2020
This review analyses a monograph by O. Velikanova, an American historian of
Russian descent. The ... more This review analyses a monograph by O. Velikanova, an American historian of
Russian descent. The work focuses on the interaction of the Bolshevik authorities
with the USSR’s population during the most large-scale political campaign of
the early Soviet era, the “national discussion” of the draft version of the Stalin
Constitution in the second half of 1936. Special attention is paid to the author’s
method with various sources: from official legislation to classified document
management, including several previously unpublished documents. The author
aims to theoretically substantiate the existence of the phenomenon of mass
political culture in the Soviet reality of the 1930s
The Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution: Illiberal Liberation, 1917-1941. , 2020
A range of tendencies in Stalinist policies during 1933–6 historians see as moderating in politic... more A range of tendencies in Stalinist policies during 1933–6 historians see as moderating in political, economic, judicial and ideological developments, including trends towards more legality and nonlethal repression. This chapter discusses these moderating trends and suggests an evaluation of their place in the history of Stalinism between two peaks of state violence – collectivization (1928–32) and the Great Terror (1937–8). I argue that what looks like the moderation of policy stems from two different government contexts: sometimes it was an adjustment or ad hoc correction after ‘excesses’, at other times – on the level of metadiscourse – a relaxation motivated by the expectation of the advent of socialism in accordance with Lenin’s plan.
The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 40 (2013) 64–89
This article based on new archival documents introduces a new episode of mass operations, which t... more This article based on new archival documents introduces a new episode of mass operations, which took place in June and July of 1927 and was directed against the broad group of "anti-Soviet" forces. It preceded many practices of mass terror of the 1930s with judicial and extralegal mechanisms. The goal of this article is to explain motivations, justifications, and mechanisms of this repressive campaign and to put this episode in the wider context of Soviet terror. Facing the combination of a perceived danger of war and real internal social hostility expressed in broad defeatism, both threatening the perpetuation of their governmental powers, authorities resorted to repressions. The 1927 episode highlights the factor of a perceived threat of war as a crucial motivating element in Soviet repressive tactics.
Разочарованные мечтатели: Советское общество 1920-х гг. РОССПЕН, 2017
Книга историка О. В. Великановой, первоначально изданная на английском языке, посвящена изучению ... more Книга историка О. В. Великановой, первоначально изданная на английском языке, посвящена изучению массовых настроений в СССР в первое десятилетие его существования. Опираясь на обширную документальную базу,включающую информационные сводки ОГПУ и партийных органов, частные письма, дневники, доклады зарубежных дипломатов и разговоры, подслушанные осведомителями ОГПУ, автор прослеживает, как население реагировало на советские мобилизационные кампании 1920-х гг. В книге показаны рост разочарования в первом послереволюционном поколении советских людей и кризис легитимности большевистской власти, который в сочетании с экономическими, политическими, социальными проблемами внутри страны и неудачами на международной арене сыграл важную роль в переходе большевиков к репрессивным и диктаторским методам правления.
Mass Political Culture Under Stalinism. Popular Discussion of the Soviet Constitution of 1936. Palgrave Macmillan 2018
https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319784427#aboutBook
Mass Political Culture Under Stalinism Popular Discussion of the Soviet Constitution of 1936
This book is the first full-length study of the Soviet Constitution of 1936, exploring Soviet cit... more This book is the first full-length study of the Soviet Constitution of 1936, exploring Soviet citizens’ views of constitutional democratic principles and their problematic relationship to the reality of Stalinism. Drawing on archival materials, the book offers an insight into the mass political culture of the mid-1930s in the USSR and thus contributes to wider research on Russian political culture. Popular comments about the constitution show how liberal, democratic and conciliatory discourse co-existed in society with illiberal, confrontational and intolerant views.
The study also covers the government’s goals for the constitution’s revision and the national discussion, and its disappointment with the results. Outcomes of the discussion convinced Stalin that society was not sufficiently Sovietized. Stalin's re-evaluation of society's condition is a new element in the historical picture explaining why politics shifted from the relaxation of 1933-36 to the Great Terror, and why repressions expanded from former oppositionists to the officials and finally to the wider population.
This book presents a study of collective representations in Soviet Russia concentrates on percep... more This book presents a study of collective representations in Soviet Russia concentrates on perceptions of Lenin's image from a socio-anthropological, rather than political, view. In addition to Communist Party information, official documents, memoirs and folklore, newly opened secret reports of the Soviet political police are used for the first time. The book analyzes the development of the cult from Lenin's lifetime up to the process of "de-Leninization" in the 1990s. Much of the research concerns the perception of Lenin's death and the decision to embalm his body, the campaign called "the Lenin enrollment", renaming of Petrograd and organization of "Lenin Corners". The book also presents new material devoted to Lenin museums, along with archive documents and never-published photographs. In Russian.
Reviews on Olga Velikanova by Olga Velikanova
Kritika, 2021
Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 22, Number
1, Winter 2021, pp. 201-... more Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 22, Number
1, Winter 2021, pp. 201-209 (Review)
Социальные и гуманитарные науки. Отечественная и зарубежная литература. Сер. 5, История: Реферативный журнал, 2019, № 1, 2019
by M. M. Mints
Slavic Review, 2015
by Sh. Fitzpatrick
Ab Imperio, 2018
By I. B. Orlov
Социальные и гуманитарные науки. Отечественная и зарубежная литература. Сер. 5, История: Реферативный журнал, 2019, № 1, 2019
By M. M. Mints
Papers by Olga Velikanova
Media and Communication from Lenin to Stalin (1917-1941): General Perspective, 2022
This chapter reviews Soviet surveillance with its disciplining, managerial, and protective functi... more This chapter reviews Soviet surveillance with its disciplining, managerial, and protective functions. When the open channels of communication between the state and society were disrupted by secrecy, censorship, repression, and the totalism of the system with no private sector, independent media, or political opposition available, top authorities sought information needed for administration and security through tacit surveillance. The security police, party secretaries, military political departments, and soviet and media agencies regularly submitted to the top authorities confidential reviews on the political mood of the citizens (and various groups like the church), on political and economic conditions of the provinces, and on private correspondence and unpublished letters to newspapers. Among other practices we discuss here the use of informants, cataloguing of “the alien elements” and inspection of private mail. Specific to Soviet surveillance was its wide thematic embrace (including the monitoring of economy and administration performance), oversized scale, and repressiveness.
The War Scare of 1927
Popular Perceptions of Soviet Politics in the 1920s
The Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution, 2020
Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open... more Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form.
The War Scare of 1927
Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, Aug 15, 2013
Popular Perceptions of Soviet Politics in the 1920s: Disenchantment of the Dreamers
Разочарован-ные мечтатели: Советское обще-ство 1920-х гг by О. В. Великанова
Sources
Mass Political Culture Under Stalinism, 2018
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Books by Olga Velikanova
Russian descent. The work focuses on the interaction of the Bolshevik authorities
with the USSR’s population during the most large-scale political campaign of
the early Soviet era, the “national discussion” of the draft version of the Stalin
Constitution in the second half of 1936. Special attention is paid to the author’s
method with various sources: from official legislation to classified document
management, including several previously unpublished documents. The author
aims to theoretically substantiate the existence of the phenomenon of mass
political culture in the Soviet reality of the 1930s
The study also covers the government’s goals for the constitution’s revision and the national discussion, and its disappointment with the results. Outcomes of the discussion convinced Stalin that society was not sufficiently Sovietized. Stalin's re-evaluation of society's condition is a new element in the historical picture explaining why politics shifted from the relaxation of 1933-36 to the Great Terror, and why repressions expanded from former oppositionists to the officials and finally to the wider population.
Reviews on Olga Velikanova by Olga Velikanova
1, Winter 2021, pp. 201-209 (Review)
Papers by Olga Velikanova
Russian descent. The work focuses on the interaction of the Bolshevik authorities
with the USSR’s population during the most large-scale political campaign of
the early Soviet era, the “national discussion” of the draft version of the Stalin
Constitution in the second half of 1936. Special attention is paid to the author’s
method with various sources: from official legislation to classified document
management, including several previously unpublished documents. The author
aims to theoretically substantiate the existence of the phenomenon of mass
political culture in the Soviet reality of the 1930s
The study also covers the government’s goals for the constitution’s revision and the national discussion, and its disappointment with the results. Outcomes of the discussion convinced Stalin that society was not sufficiently Sovietized. Stalin's re-evaluation of society's condition is a new element in the historical picture explaining why politics shifted from the relaxation of 1933-36 to the Great Terror, and why repressions expanded from former oppositionists to the officials and finally to the wider population.
1, Winter 2021, pp. 201-209 (Review)