Creating a "People": A Case Study in Post-Soviet History-Writing

With innovative interpretations resulting from renewed interest in the study of Soviet nationalities policy, ¹ scholarly attention is turning toward the long-neglected links between national consciousness and Soviet historiography and education. ² Soviet historical narratives are increasingly viewed as a powerful means of creating and manipulating the national identities of Soviet subjects, both Russians and non-Russians. ³

Despite valuable advances, some aspects of this problematic still require further investigation. In particular, the crucial role played by Stalinist historical narratives in the formation of Soviet and post-Soviet world-views has not been sufficiently clarified. While David Brandenberger, who recently published a wonderful study of the genesis of Stalinist history textbooks in the late 1930s, is certainly correct in ascertaining that those texts created "a popular sense ... of modern Russian national identity," he seems to see this identity mostly in terms of the pantheon of Russian national heroes. ⁴ It is my contention that Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet history textbooks may be analyzed in a fashion long familiar to scholars of Soviet literature considering Socialist Realist literary products — as highly rigid, formulaic texts containing a limited number of encoded cultural symbols, conveying an ideological message suitable to the authorities and readily understandable to the Soviet masses. ⁵ Given that these narratives changed only slightly since the late 1930s when the first textbooks on the history of the USSR were produced, and that virtually all Soviet citizens were exposed to their teaching, one might legitimately expect that they played a prominent role in the formation of the Soviet worldview, which, according to recent findings, exhibited remarkable resilience during the Soviet period and to a large extent survived the downfall of the Soviet Union. ⁶

Furthermore, it is worth noting that the Soviet tradition of history-writing itself lingers in the post-Soviet world. Even a cursory glance at curricula and textbooks in post-Soviet countries is enough to produce the impression that many of them follow, perhaps unwittingly, the basic structure established under Stalin in the second half of the 1930s. Often they use similar discursive strategies and devices and focus on similar themes, even if their judgments are inverted. ⁷

It thus follows that narratives of "national" histories in the post-Soviet countries and national republics of the Russian Federation can be analyzed not only in terms of their conduciveness to the creation of "closed" or "open" worldviews or to what extent they contain "old Soviet" or "new Western market" ideological statements, ⁸ but also, and probably more fruitfully, from the point of view of what they do with the Soviet master narrative. To what extent do they remain faithful to it, and to what extent do they depart from it? What are the implications of their chosen narrative strategies, and how deliberately do their authors employ them? In light of what was noted above about the influence of Stalinist history on the outlooks of Soviet citizens, it hardly needs to be emphasized that such studies may elucidate important aspects of post-communist mentalities and political culture.

This study attempts to do exactly this in respect to one particular, and rather extreme, case of post-Soviet history-writing in the self-proclaimed and unrecognized "state" of the Dnestr Moldovan Republic (DMR), also known by its Russian name "Pridnestrov'e" and its Romanian (Moldovan) name "Transnistria." ⁹ First, I will introduce readers to the place and explicate the structural constraints under which its "official" historical narrative was produced, paying attention to the motives of both the executors and consumers. Next I will set forth my understanding of the basic structure of Soviet historical master narrative as it was created under Stalin. Finally, I will proceed to analyze the post-Soviet official history of the DMR in terms of its relationship to the Soviet master narrative.

The "Dnestrian Moldovan Republic...