2016 Immortal Regiment in Saint Petersburg (096)

The

social phenomenon Social phenomena or social phenomenon (singular) are any behaviours, actions, or events that takes place because of social influence, including from contemporary as well as historical societal influences. They are often a result of multifaceted pr ...

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

for the

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(russian: links=no, Ностальгия по СССР, Nostal'giya po SSSR), can include its politics, its society, its culture, its superpower status, or simply its

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

. Such nostalgia occurs among people in Russia and other

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

, as well as among people born in the

but long since living abroad, and even among Communists and Soviet sympathizers from elsewhere in the world. It is associated with

Soviet patriotism Soviet patriotism is the socialist patriotism involving emotional and cultural attachment of the Soviet people to the Soviet Union as their homeland. It can also be referred to as Soviet nationalism due to Stalinism. Manifestation in the Sov ...

. In 2004, the television channel

Nostalgiya Nostalgiya (russian: Ностальгия) is a Russian television channel, catering to nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Launched in 2004, the channel broadcasts to almost all the European portion of the former Soviet Union The logo of the chann ...

, its logo featuring stylized hammer-and-sickle imagery, was launched in Russia.

Polling

Ever since the

fall of the USSR The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

and the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

, annual polling by the

Levada Center The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to ...

has shown that over 50 percent of Russia's population lamented its collapse, with the only exception to this being in the year 2012 when support for the Soviet Union dipped below 50 percent. A 2018 poll showed that 66% of Russians regretted the fall of the Soviet Union, setting a 15-year record, and the majority of these regretting opinions came from people older than 55. In Armenia, 12% of respondents said the USSR collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In Kyrgyzstan, 16% of respondents said the collapse of the USSR did good, while 61% said it did harm. A 2012 survey commissioned by the

Carnegie Endowment The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded in ...

found 38% of Armenians concurring that their country "will always have need of a leader like Stalin". A poll conducted in 2019 found that 59% of Russians believe the Soviet government "took care of ordinary people". A poll conducted in 2020 found that 75% of Russians believe the Soviet era was "the greatest time" in the country's history.

Reasons

According to polls, what is missed most about the former Soviet Union was its shared economic system, which provided financial stability.

Neoliberal Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

economic reforms after the fall of the USSR and the

resulted in harsh living standards for the general population. Policies associated with

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

allowed much of the country's economy to fall in the hands of a newly established business oligarchy. The sense of belonging to a great

superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...

was a secondary reason for the nostalgia; many felt humiliated and betrayed by their experiences throughout the 1990s and blamed the upheaval on advisors from Western powers, especially as NATO moved closer into Russia's sphere of influence. According to

Kristen Ghodsee Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee (born April 26, 1970) is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as ...

, a researcher on post-communist Eastern Europe: According to the

poll (November 2016), the people mainly miss the Soviet Union because of the destruction of the joint economic system of its 15 republics (53%); people lost the feeling of belonging to a great power (43%); mutual distrust and cruelty have increased (31%); the feeling that you are at home in any part of the USSR was lost (30%); and connection with friends, relatives lost (28%). Levada Center sociologist Karina Pipiya says that economic factors played the most significant part in rising nostalgia for the USSR in the 2018 poll, as opposed to loss of prestige or national identity, noting that a strong majority of Russians "regret that there used to be more social justice and that the government worked for the people and that it was better in terms of care for citizens and paternalistic expectations." A June 2019 Levada Center poll found that 59% of Russians felt that the Soviet government "took care of ordinary people".

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's favorability also hit record highs the spring of that year.

References

External links

News

*Blundy, A.
Nostalgia for the Soviet Era Sweeps the Internet
'.

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

. July 30, 2014. *Pippenger, N.
Why Are So Many Russians Nostalgic For The USSR?
' New Republic. August 19, 2011.
In Russia, nostalgia for Soviet Union and positive feelings about Stalin

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

. June 29, 2017.
Russian Support for Stalin Surges to Record High, Poll Says
Bloomberg. April 16, 2019.

Internet societies

Project "Encyclopedia of our childhood"
Soviet Union through the eyes of contemporaries
Museum "20th century"
Recollections about the Soviet epoch *

livejournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...

: ** – "For our Soviet Motherland!" ** – "USSR (all about the 1922—1991 epoch)" ** – "What always is nice to remember..." ** – "1922 – 1991: USSR in photos"
Soviet cards and postersUSSR in scale
a website commemorated to a private collection of Soviet technology and vehicles in the scale 1:43
In Barnaul, a store called "Sovietsky" was opened

Soviet heritage: between zoo, reservation and sanctuary (about "Soviet epoch parks")
!--может надо о них в отд. раздел..--> // Новая Эўропа �
DELFI
11 сентября 2013 {{Soviet Union topics Dissolution of the Soviet Union History of Russia (1991–present) Neo-Sovietism

Polling

Reasons

See also

Communist nostalgia in Europe

References

Further reading

External links

News

Internet societies