INSIDE VIEW ON POLITICAL HISTORY OF RUSSIA IN THE 1990s AS A TOOL OF DEMYTHOLOGIZATION

• Main Authors: I. O. Viatkin, A. V. Maksimov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jurist, Publishing Group 2020-05-01
• Series: Sravnitelʹnaâ Politika
• Subjects: russian political history; demythologization; nineties; politics of memory; ideology; reforms; public consciousness
• Online Access: https://www.comparativepolitics.org/jour/article/view/1161

The purpose of the present research is to explore nature and degree of the subjectivity of the constellation of stereotypes, myths united by the “dashing nineties” cliché that surround the period of 1990s of the Russian history.The first part of the article is devoted to the literature review on the ontology of social “mythologization” of historical events. It reveals that subjective interpretation of the past (“construction of history”) is signifi cant as a tool for legitimizing the present, primarily the political. In addition, review reveals a number of persistent historical narratives, associated with the 1990s , that have been circulating in Russian political discourse.The methodological basis of the work are in-depth interviews with people who held positions in Russian offi cial bodies throughout the 1990s . Informants disclosed that life diffi culties that the majority of citizens had faced during the 1990s , coupled with the usage of the negative ideological stamp of “dashing 90s” by the contemporary Russian political regime are the main causes of mythologization. In turn, respondents pointed out that each particular mythology mentioned are the simplifi ed derivatives of the reception of events by ordinary people suffering from a fl awed and incomplete understanding of what was happening.In conclusion, it is inferred that the presence of a quasi-offi cial state position that reinforce the philistine view of the 1990s imposes certain restrictions on the scope and intensity of public discussion about the role of the 1990s in the history of the Russian state, which defi nitely hinders the demythologization of this period in the mass consciousness.