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Revision as of 09:21, 9 October 2007


File:The Commissar Vanishes.jpeg
The book The Commissar Vanishes by David King discusses falsification of historic photos in Soviet Union in depth, with numerous examples. Some of them can be seen on this cover.
File:The Commissar Vanishes 1.jpg
Before 1940
File:The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg
After: People's Commissar for the Interior Nikolai Yezhov, the young man strolling with Stalin to his left, was shot in 1940. He was edited out from a photo by Soviet censors.[1]

Soviet historiography, defined as historic scholarship produced in the Soviet Union, was frequently compromised as it had to comply with the Soviet ideology. While the degree of the ideological control over the historic scholarship varied in different periods of the Soviet Union's history, Soviet historiography (and Soviet scholarship in general) was affected by censorship and forced adherence to the party line and Marxist theories. Soviet scholars were constricted in their research, as research into many areas of history was forbidden or could not diverge from certain assumptions and conclusions; Soviet scholars were also denied access to some parts of the international body of knowledge, as many works of non-Soviet historians were forbidden or censored. Besides limitations imposed by ideology and state policy, Soviet historiography also fabricated false information.

Criticism

Party line

Historians are dangerous and capable of turning everything upside down. They have to be watched.
Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1956[2]

Soviet historiography had been severely criticized by scholars, chiefly — but not only — outside Soviet Union, with its very status as scholarly called into question, and described as ideology and pseudoscience.[3] In particular, Robert Conquest concluded that [4]

All in all, unprecedented terror must seem necessary to ideologically motivated attempts to transform society massively and speedily, against its natural possibilities. The accompanying falsifications took place, and on a barely credible scale, in every sphere. Real facts, real statistics, disappeared into the realm of fantasy. History, including the History of the Communist Party, or rather especially the history of the Communist Party, was rewritten. Unpersons disappeared from the official record. A new past, as well as new present, was imposed on the captive minds of the Soviet population, as was, of course, admitted when truth emerged in the late 1980s".

That criticism stems from the fact that in the Soviet Union, science was far from independent. Since the late 1930s, Soviet historiography treated the party line and reality as one and the same.[5] As such, if it was a science - it was a science in service of a specific political and ideological agenda, commonly employing historical revisionism.[6] In the 1930s, historic archives were closed, original research severely restricted. Historians were required to pepper their works with references — appropriate or not — to Stalin and other "Marxist-Leninist classics", and to pass judgment — as prescribed by the Party — on pre-revolution historic Russian figures.[7]

The state-approved history was openly subjected to politics and propaganda, similar to philosophy, art, and many fields of scientific research.[2] The Party could not be proven wrong, it was infallible and reality was to conform to this line. Any non-conformist history had to be erased, and questioning of the official history was illegal.[2]

Many works of Western historians were forbidden or censored, many areas of history were also forbidden for research as, officially, they never happened.[2] As such, it remained mostly outside the international historiography of the period.[3] Translations of foreign historiography were often produced in a truncated form, accompanied with extensive censorship and corrective footnotes. For example, in the Russian 1976 translation of Basil Liddell Hart's History of the Second World War pre-war purges of Red Army officers, the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, many details of the Winter War, the occupation of the Baltic states, the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Allied assistance to the Soviet Union during the war, many other Western Allies' efforts, the Soviet leadership's mistakes and failures, criticism of the Soviet Union and other content were censored out.[8]

The official version of Soviet history has been dramatically changed after every major governmental shake-up. Previous leaders were always denounced as "enemies", whereas current leaders were usually a subject of a personality cult. Textbooks were rewritten periodically, with figures - such as Lev Trotsky or Stalin himself - disappearing from their pages or being turned from great figures to great villains.[9][2]

Certain regions and periods of history were made unreliable for political reasons. Entire historical events could be erased, if they did not fit the party line. For example, until 1989 the Soviet leadership and historians, unlike their Western colleagues, had denied the existence of a secret protocol to the Soviet-German Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, and as a result the Soviet approach to the study of the Soviet-German relations before 1941 and the origins of World War II were remarkably flawed.[10] In another example, the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as well as the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920 were censored out or minimized from most publications, and research suppressed, in order to enforce the policy of 'Polish-Soviet friendship'.[2] Similarly, the enforced collectivisation, the wholesale deportations or massacres of small nationalities in the Caucasus or the disappearance of the Crimean Tatars are not recognized as facts worth of mention.[2]


Marxism influence

Further information: Marxist historiography

The problems of Soviet historiography are the problems of our Communist ideology.
Anna Pankratova, Soviet academician, 1956[6]

A major factor influencing unreliability of Soviet historiography was that the Soviet interpretation of Marxism predetermined much of the research done by historians. Due to that, Soviet historians could not offer non-Marxist explanations for their theories, even on occasions where other theories fit the reality much better.[3][2]

The creation of the Soviet Union was presented as the most important turning event in the human history, based on the Marxist theory of historical materialism. This theory identified means of production as chief determinants of the historical process. They led to the creation of social classes, and class struggle was the 'motor' of history. The sociocultural evolution of societies had to progress inevitably from slavery, through feudalism and capitalism to communism. Furthermore, the Communist Party became the protagonist of history, as a "vanguard of the working class", according to development of this theory by Lenin. Hence the unlimited powers of the Communist Party leaders were claimed to be as infallible and inevitable as the history itself [11]. It also followed that a world-wide victory of communist countries is inevitable. All research had to be based on those assumptions and could not diverge in its findings.[2]

The Marxist bias has been also criticized, for example, for assigning to the Roman rebellions the characteristics of the social revolution, or for errors in comparing the recent developments in Russia with those in the Western countries (for example, Soviet Union mostly "skipped" the period of capitalism required by Marxist theory before the period of communism can be reached).[2][3]

Often, the Marxist bias and propaganda demands mixed: hence the peasant rebellions against the early Soviet rule were simply ignored - as inconvenient politically and contradicting the Marxist theories.[5] The Kronstadt rebellion, for example, was one of many events that, according to Soviet historiography, simply never happened.[2]

Myths of Soviet historiography

A number of specific claims made by Soviet historians and supported by some of their Western colleagues have been described as examples of big lie by prominent historians Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes. The examples of alleged fallacies included the following:

  1. Myth: The Bolshevik party during the October revolution was supported by masses, and especially by Russian working class. Reality: "Bolsheviks only got a quarter of the vote at the height of their popularity in the elections that followed". Massive strikes by Russian workers were "mercilessly" (as Lenin said) suppressed during Red terror [4]
  2. Myth: "Stalinism was a success, having fulfilled its historical mission to force the rapid industrialization of an undeveloped country". Reality: "Russia had already been fourth to fifth among industrial economies before World War I." Russian industrial advances could have been achieved without collectivization, famine or terror. The industrial successes were far less than claimed. The Soviet-style industrialization was "an anti-innovative dead-end" [4]
  3. Myth: Mass terror during Stalin ruling was an aberration of the communist system, which resulted from Stalin's personal paranoia and his "cult of personality". If only Lenin had been alive, those abuses would never happened. Reality: It was Lenin who introduced Red terror with its hostage taking and concentration camps. It was Lenin who developed the infamous Article 58 that was used later during Great Terror. It was Lenin who established the autocratic system within the Communist Party [12] Vyacheslav Molotov, when asked who of two leaders was more "severe", replied: "Lenin, of course... I remember how he scolded Stalin for softness and liberalism" [12].

Reliability of statistical data used in historical research

It was noted that many statistical data used in historical research have been completely invented rather than simply fabricated by the Soviet authorities, such as economical data invented to prove great successes of the Soviet industrialization, and some published numbers of Gulag prisoners and terror victims [4]. The results of Soviet Census of 1937 also remain controversial.

Falsification of historical events

Soviet historians also engaged in producing false claims and falsification of history, for example Soviet historiography falsly claimed that Katyn massacre was made by Germans rather then by Soviets as was the case.[13]


Soviet historians

Mikhail Pokrovsky (1862-1932) was held in highest repute as a historian in the Soviet Union and was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1929. He emphasized Marxist theory, downplaying the role of personality in favour of economics as the driving force of history. However, posthumously, Pokrovsky was accused of "vulgar sociologism", and his books were banned. After Stalin's death, and the subsequent renouncement of his policies during the Khrushchev Thaw, Pokrovsky's work regained some influence.

Credibility

Not all areas of Soviet historiography were equally affected by the ideological sturdiness of the regime's, which in any case varied considerably over time. The degree of the ideologization of different areas of historic science varied as well. The worst was situation with history of 19th and, especially of 20th centuries.[citation needed] Therefore, despite part of the Soviet historiography being affected by extreme ideological bias, and compromised by the deliberate distortions and omissions, it has produced a large body of significant scholarship which continues to be used in the modern research.[14] For example, Soviet works on Byzantium, created and published in Soviet Union, are held in high regard.[citation needed]

Influences on popular culture

These trends have been most famously portrayed by George Orwell in his classic dystopia, Nineteen Eighty-Four (see also Ministry of Truth).

Another notable criticism was delivered by Victor Suvorov in his book "The Liberator" [9]. He said that "Vladimir Lenin was an enemy", because all his friends were proven to be enemy of the people by the Soviet courts, which are the most democratic and just in the world. The enemies were Lev Trotsky, Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, and Karl Radek. It was Lenin who brought these "wrecklers" to power, so that brave chekists had to kill them all with bullets or ice axes. "Stalin was also an enemy", "as has been proven to the entire world at the historical 20th Congress of the Communist Party". Of course, "Stalin himself destroyed thousands of enemies and spies from his closest surrounding, but he could not exterminate them all", so that his "closest friend Lavrenty Beria and his notorious gang have been executed only after Stalin". Sadly enough, Khrushev, who got rid of Beria, turned out to be a traitor, just like his successor Leonid Brezhnev, who was guilty of terrible corruption.

References

  1. ^ The Commissar vanishes (The Newseum)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ferro, Marc (2003). The Use and Abuse of History: Or How the Past Is Taught to Children. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415285926. See Chapters 8 Aspects and variations of Soviet history and 10 History in profile: Poland.
  3. ^ a b c d Gwidon Zalejko, Soviet historiography as "normal science", in Historiography Between Modernism and Postmodernism, Jerzy Topolski (ed.), Rodopi, 1994, ISBN 9051837216, Google Print, p.179-191.
  4. ^ a b c d Robert Conquest Reflections on a Ravaged Century (2000) ISBN 0-393-04818-7, page 101
  5. ^ a b Taisia Osipova, Peasant rebellions: Origin, Scope, Design and Consequences, in Vladimir N. Brovkin (ed.), The Bolsheviks in Russian Society: The Revolution and the Civil Wars, Yale University Press, 1997, ISBN 0300067062. Google Print, p.154-176
  6. ^ a b Roger D. Markwick, Donald J. Raleigh, Rewriting History in Soviet Russia: The Politics of Revisionist Historiography, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, ISBN 0333792092, Google Print, p.4-5
  7. ^ John L. H. Keep: A History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991: Last of the Empires, pages 30–31
  8. ^ Lewis, B. E. (1977). Soviet Taboo. Review of Vtoraya Mirovaya Voina, History of the Second World War by B. Liddel Gart (Russian translation). Soviet Studies 29 (4), 603-606.
  9. ^ a b The Liberators (Освободитель), 1981, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, ISBN 0-241-10675-3; cited from Russian edition of 1999, ISBN 5-237-03557-4, pages 13-16
  10. ^ Bidlack, Richard (1990). Review of Voprosy istorii i istoriografii Velikoi otechestvennoi voiny by I. A. Rosenko, G. L. Sovolev. Slavic Review 49 (4), 653-654.
  11. ^ David Satter. Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, Yale University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-300-08705-5
  12. ^ a b Richard Pipes Communism: A History (2001) ISBN 0-812-96864-6, pages 73-74.
  13. ^ Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre, Małgorzata Kużniar-Plota, Departamental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warsaw 30 November 2004, (Internet Archive) (also see the press release online), last accessed on 19 December 2005, English translation of Polish document
  14. ^ Hannes Heer, Klaus Naumann, War Of Extermination: The German Military In World War II, Berghahn Books, 2004, ISBN 1571812326, Google Print, p.304

See also

Further reading

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