Interiorization of the Soviet model by the Old Believers’ community in Buryat-Mongolia in the 1920-s

Abstract

The research topicality is due to the necessity to analyze the strategies of adaptation, survival, resistance and coexistence of traditional communities under the new social reality of the 1920-s, when the basics of the Soviet model of development were laid. This will enable to significantly adjust the contemporary vision of the problems of Socialist modernization of the borderland national autonomy of the Soviet state. This article focuses on the features of interirorization of the Soviet model by the Old Believers. In the context of the conducted research, interirorization is interpreted as a complex social-historical and social-psychological process of assimilating the new social forms and economic relations, imposed by the Soviet power which was proclaimed in the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923. This process led to changing the world outlook in compliance with the Bolshevik paradigm of Socialist society. The methodological tool of the research is everyday life history, focusing on the comprehensive study of the repeated, the normal and the habitual which constructs the style and way of living, their components and changes, including emotional reactions to the life events and motives of behavior. Besides, we rely on anthropological approach which allows focusing on the everyday life of the Old Believers, their emotional reactions and routine practices. The article reveals the specificity of the Old Believers’ perception of the Soviet power and its economic measures, researches their reactions to the Bolsheviks’ struggling against religion, analyzes their attitude to the Soviet modernization projects in the spheres of education and medicine, reveals the features of assimilating the Soviet novelties in economic, leisure and everyday practices, in marriage and family relations. It is stated that the actively developing Soviet construction, many trends of which contradicted the Old Believers’ dogmas, caused diverse reactions ranging from negative perception to categorical denial and resistance. It is proved that the interiorization process in this group appeared to be difficult; only the youth accepted the new forms and relations. Interiorization was impeded by the closeness of the Old Believers’ community, their isolation from the rest of the world, archaic traditionalism. The research demonstrates the necessity for the state (regardless of its political and ideological basis) to take into account the historical, socio-cultural and ethno-confessional features of individual regions and the peoples inhabiting them when choosing the means and elaborating the mechanisms of reforming the society.