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«Red Ritualism» in the Territory of Don Oblast in 1923-1924
DOI of the paper: 10.15382/sturII201567.85-94
Abstract
The birth, development and extinction peculiarities of the “Red Ritualism” (new traditions and rituals of Soviet Russia) in the territory of Don Oblast in 1923–1924 are considered in this article on the basis of the regional periodicals of 1920. The Soviet Government was interested in new ritualism from the first revolution years till the beginning of 1930 and in the period of the Khrushchev Thaw (the end of the 1950 — the beginning of the 1960 ). The article is devoted to the investigation of theses processes at the regional level in the first half-year of the 1920. The struggle with survives of time was on of the most evident areas of the anti-religious activity of the Goverment in the fi rst half-year of the 1920 th. After the company of church values confiscation the Government stroke an ideological blow at the way of life — they created “civil funeral”, “red marriage” and “octyabriny” (a name-day, the soviet ritual as an alternative of christening). In the Don region theses rituals appeared in 1923. “The red christening” was the most popular, “the civil funeral” was the least one. These processes were mostly spread in the cities and in a less degree in the villages. While in the whole country in 1925 the interest toward the “red ritualism” reached the peak, in the Donskaya oblast it was fading away. The author in this work uses the archive materials that were not published previously. The article will be useful for the specialists and other people interested in the given subject.
Keywords
Russian Orthodox Church, red ritualism, soviet rituals, zvezdiny, red funeral, soviet marriage, christening, rituals, Donskaya oblast, oktyabriny, anti-religious propaganda.
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