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Revolution of October 1917 in the narratives of political parties in modern Russia

M.S. Kozyrev
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Maxim S. Kozyrev, Cand. Sci. (Philosophy), Docent, Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; The Plekhanov Russian Economic University, Russia, Moscow; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1643-3391; Researcher ID: 57188625469, e-mail: max-han@yandex.ru


The purpose of the article is to analyze the narratives of political parties in modern Russia dedicated to the October Revolution of 1917, and to identify the social foundations of their ideological orientations. The methodological basis is the idea according to which social position corresponds to certain points of view, type of thinking, habitus. The method of collecting information is one of the types of document analysis — thematic analysis. The sources of information are materials from publications of politicians affiliated with certain political parties. As a result of the study, it was found that, the ruling party and most parties of the legal opposition have different versions of the same narrative, the main elements of which are as follows: October 1917 is a historical event on a global scale, but in the status of the “beginning of times” or “the act of creating a new world” is denied to it; the Soviet era is declared to be a continuation of the thousand-year tradition of Russian statehood; an overt or covert conciliatory position aimed at achieving harmony in society; rejection of revolutionary social changes in favor of reformist solutions to social problems. The reason for the convergence of narratives is seen in the proximity of the social positions of their leaders. Certain exception can be found in the political party “Yabloko”, the reason for which is the loss of previous positions as a result of the political struggle, which forces its activists to exploit the protest anti-Soviet discourse. It is noteworthy that Yabloko’s narrative of the October Revolution of 1917 in many aspects represents official Soviet ideology turned on its head.

Keywords: ideological narrative, politics of memory, social stratification and differentiation, Revolution of October 1917, political parties of Russia

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