Constructing the Soviet?
On Friday April 17 the members of the scientific and educational group "Applied GIS in Humanities" Zimina Maria, Korobeynikov Alexander and Kuchinsky Alexander made a presentation at the conference "Constructing the Soviet?" that called: "The Dynamics of Visual Image of Central Asia in the Context of the Transition from the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union, 1871-1940".
The aim of the research was to analyze the dynamics of the image and the mechanisms of transformation of identity through the usage of visual discourse and with the help of photographic heritage of Central Asia.
One of the conceptual question was: how the properties of pictures can be used to explore the Russian Empire? First, the photography needs for the development of an unfamiliar space: the territory considered to be investigated if it is photographically recorded. Secondly, the snapshots allows you to explore not only the territory, but also time. Photography, thus, is one of the main tools for the construction of historical memory. To end XIX- early XX centuries an important area of application was shooting photos of atypical and deviant groups used in sociology, anthropology, and other sciences. It follows to the conclusion about objectives of photofixation: access to the ownership of a particular area and specific time interval not only for shooting his contemporaries, but also, importantly, for future generations. According to the theory of Rob Shields, most people think of places that were not personally, only through photographs. The extent of the empire, this theory promotes the development of spatial imagination and ideas about new territories that is why pictures are so important state project.
The report considered different spatial, contextual and temporal cases. The period in question covers an impressive period of time that is why the speakers have divided the report on three parts - an imperial, autonomous and Soviet. It was really significant because speakers worked with three types of sources: photos of ethnographic expeditions, from the collection of pictures created by MAE in the Central Asian ethnological expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1931 and the album "20 years of Kazakhstan", released in 1940, was conducted discourse analysis of visual sources.
Imperial period is characterized by the formation of ideas about culture, appearance and other characteristics of foreigners by means of pictures mastered the unfamiliar space. In the "transition" period can be traced comparative perspective between Alash and Kokand Autonomy: unlike Kokand autonomy in Alash photos leaders of the movement to represent the image of the potential of the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) nation, visible gender asymmetry, and pictures circulated within the autonomy, creating a certain image of the new an independent state. A completely different situation is observed in the Soviet period: in the album, "20 years of Kazakhstan" traced existing trends in photography that have changed during 1920-1930. - In first place in the photo came genre of social realism. Photos of Soviet leaders, with large-scale photographs of buildings and industrial plants - all this to take pictures in the early Soviet period. Thus, the photo served as a Soviet propaganda discourse, and was constantly in close contact with the surrounding social environment. Album important to show improvements in USSR region. It contains photographs of factories, collective farms, schools, hospitals, etc. It is shown that Russian and Kazakh cooperation in the building of socialism, as well as disappearing gender asymmetry (women work alongside men). However, interesting is the fact that in addition to all this, the photos are elements of traditional clothing. Particularly important is the section on culture. Musicians and actors of the theater dressed in full traditional dress (pictured), as well as a photo of the building of the Kazakh theater is the only color photography throughout the album (the color is very important in the transmission of color east). In general, despite the purpose of the album to show how useful and progressive was the Soviet power in the region and how positively it affected on the development of Kazakhstan, as well as criticism of the imperial policy to emphasize the distinction between the people and the term foreigners, the photographs noticeable difference Kazakhs from Russian.
In other words, there is a mixture of two identities (national and supranational Kazakh Soviet), as is illustrated by the photos presented.
As a result, through the photo, you can determine how the representation of national and supra-national identity and the evolution of the image of Central Asia in a relatively short period since the end of the 1880s. Before 1940 Imperial photo represents "unusual" feature of the local population, as observed in the Soviet bipolar view of the region. Photography - a new instrument of colonization and domination in the XIX, used for the production of knowledge about the new territories in the empire. In the context of national autonomy reflected a change of thinking in terms of a single nation in opposition to religion, which is reflected in the photographs; despite the prevalence of Westernizing ideas remains traditionalist approach: gender asymmetry, woman - keeper of the national culture, the men - supporters of the Western way of development. In Soviet times, there are two images of the region: the first religion completely disappears from the picture, but there is the preservation of national elements reflected in the pictures. In the second, it is important for the Soviet ethnology, preserved national and religious elements. Within the context of the Soviet Union can be traced symbiosis of national and Soviet identites.
Report is prepared by Korobeynikov Alexander.