Советский проект социального конструирования: переосмысление опыта в сравнительной перспективе = Soviet Project of Social Constructivism: The Rethinking of Historical Experience

Medushevsky, Andrei (2023) Советский проект социального конструирования: переосмысление опыта в сравнительной перспективе = Soviet Project of Social Constructivism: The Rethinking of Historical Experience. RUSSIANSTUDIES.HU, 5 (1). pp. 11-42. ISSN 2677-0660

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Abstract

This article discusses the meaning, formation and evolution of the Soviet Project – the concept and practice of social reorganization in Russia inspired by Marxist philosophical ideas and fulfilled during the period from the Bolshevist Revolution of 1917 until the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. On the basis of the cognitive theory approach in historical studies, the author examines the fundamental factors of cognitive adaptation from a longue durée perspective – the role of Communist myth in the formation of the Soviet state, the ideological and legal foundations of one-party dictatorship and the role of institutional continuity in the formation of the current political system. He presents the place of the permanent “building blocks” (ideology, nominal constitutionalism, and stable patterns of functioning) as well as the place of the changing parameters of the Project (Soviet, federative and class-oriented regulation) regarding their formal and informal influence on the political regime’s legitimacy and cumulative impact on the system’s transformation and failure. This enables a general evaluation of the Soviet project of social constructivism in comparative perspective and its influence on post-Soviet ideological priorities, the political system and prospects for its modernization.

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