CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Amvrosova, Alina |
|---|---|
| Title | Integration of Denunciations As an Accepted Practice in Early Stalinist Humorous Discourse (1928-1929) |
| Summary | Since coming to power after the fight with the Left and Right Opposition in 1928-1929, Stalin and the bureaucratic apparatus prepared Soviet citizens to accept and justify the need for purges in the 1930s. Humor, utilized in the prominent Soviet satirical journal Krokodil (The Crocodile), became the perfect tool to promote the idea that “enemies of the people” were disrupting socialist society. In response, the Soviet government was therefore obliged to cleanse these “enemies” from society, with the help of “average people.” As Krokodil was controlled by the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), it supported their agenda by constructing social categories labelled “pests,” or “alien elements.” The purpose of these categories was to help citizens identify who to denounce, and understand why denunciation should be considered an essential feature of Soviet civic consciousness and civil identity. Publicists and caricaturists of Krokodil were deliberate in the construction of the textual and visual narratives of denunciations. These narratives paint a holistic picture of the actors of the denunciations (those who wrote them) and their victims. Furthermore, Krokodil illustrates the societal context and circumstances surrounding the denunciations, revealing the justifications for denunciations and their consequences for both the actors and the victims. Krokodil reflected all of these elements through the lenses of class belonging, behavior, labels of “suspicious” characteristics, and images of the “enemies of the people,” enabling Soviet citizens to recognize them on sight. Essentially, the journal shaped the official humorous narratives, defining what was deemed acceptable to laugh about; and simultaneously providing the tools to discern political “signals” from the authorities. In this way, the party shifted responsibility for determining who exactly should be punished from the state to the people. The author also concludes that the satire in Krokodil was symptomatic of the political process that evolved in the USSR from 1928 up to 1938. For instance, the journal lampooned key party political figures such as Nikolai Bukharin and Lev Kamenev in 1928-1929; they were subsequently prosecuted in the Moscow Show Trials, during the Great Purge of 1936-1938. In this context, laughter redeemed the power and influence of such “enemies of the people” in the eyes of the citizens, as Christie Davies, Natalia Jonsson-Skradol, Serguei A. Oushakine, and other historians noted. Moreover, the emotions and feelings expressed by the perpetrators and victims of denunciations were embedded in the narratives of Krokodil. This resonated with the genuine fear, admiration, persuasion, and other emotions shared by various groups of Soviet citizens. Hence, this research, conducted for a Master’s degree in Comparative History, contributes a new perspective on the context of denunciations through the analysis of official humorous discourse, reflected and formed in the journal Krokodil. |
| Supervisor | Shaw, Charles |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/amvrosova_alina.pdf |
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