A super-short review of a fragment of Olga Velikanova's book "the Constitution of 1936 and the Mass Political Culture of Stalinism. M: New Literary Review, 2021. Translated from English by Olga Velikanova"
Аннотация: A super-short review of a fragment of Olga Velikanova's book "The Constitution of 1936 and the Mass Political Culture of Stalinism. M: New Literary Review, 2021. Translated from English by Olga Velikanova".
A super-short review of a fragment of Olga Velikanova's book 'The Constitution of 1936 and the Mass Political Culture of Stalinism. M: New Literary Review, 2021. Translated from English by Olga Velikanova".
If a reader of Olga Velikanova's book will read, in addition, the biography (biographies) of Mikhail Frunze, he will see a monstrous picture. [Ольга Великанова 'Конституция 1936 года и массовая политическая культура сталинизма. М: Новое литературное обозрение, 2021. Перевод с английского Ольги Великановой'.]
Armed with firearms and equipped with German money, people persistently bent the state bodies of the Russian monarchy (and then the authorities of post-monarchical state that existed in March - October 1917). This "effective" activity was especially noticeable in 1917. These people were good at controlling the elections to the Soviets - the elections were very peculiar - without clear legal foundations, but with masterful pressure on target persons.
All these masters of politics passed into the structures of the Soviet state.
Judging by a fragment of Olga Velikanova's book, the author focuses on the absurdity of uncontested elections [elections with only one candidacy], on the illusory nature of rights and freedoms. (https://gorky.media/fragments/obnulenie-po-stalinski-chem-sovetskih-lyudej-vozmutila-konstitutsiya-1936-goda/)
Firstly, even a declarative attempt to improve life in the USSR, and not to run around Europe with revolutionary slogans (or around the world - as in the 50s-80s of the 20th century) was a step forward.
Secondly, no existance of real rights and freedoms was possible, - when all levels of government were staffed with masters of policy of a Leninist spirit. Even though these rights and freedoms were mythical postulates, they were pronounced, declared (in the Constitution of 1936), and they became some kind of distant goals.
Thirdly, not all rights were mythical ones. Some rights, for example, the right to education, the right to retirement benefits ... were partly real.
Fourthly, there was a certain honesty in the lack of alternatives in the elections. In any case, it was clear who has the right to participate in the elections as candidates and who does not. And naive people who tried to become candidates for the elections were not dragged to the well-known bodies. And a well-known experiments weren't executing on such naive people.
Fifthly, who prevented Russia's ideal adherents of democracy from using the principle of equal direct general elections by secret ballot - a principle enshrined in the 1936 Constitution? Some supporters of progress fell back to the time of elections to the Democratic Conference (and to the pre-parliament) (elections under Alexander Kerensky) and to the time of the elections to the State Duma according the 'cūria system' (...1905 ...), while other true democrats accepted the mandates of the people's representatives after voting in the Academy of Sciences, in the trade unions and other civic organizations ... Strange commitment to democracy ...
In general, Olga Velikanova should continue her intellectual work and write how from 1905 and from 1917 the society came to 1936, and then in 1988-1989 the electoral system rolled back up to 1917 and 1905 .
Well, will Olga Velikanova write about modern constitutional principles? It seems that little is left of the principle of equal direct general elections by secret ballot? And what about the right to work? For education? For retirement benefits? Yes, in 2020 - the main thing is to tell how the inhabitants of the Country of the Soviets laughed at the ballots ... They, nevertheless, managed to see a normal life ... How would they react to electronic voting if they got into 2020? What does Olga Velikanova think about this?
November 30, 2020 23:16
Translation from Russian into English: December 1, 2020 21:56.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Супер-краткая рецензия на фрагмент книги Ольги Великановой 'Конституция 1936 года и массовая политическая культура сталинизма. М: Новое литературное обозрение, 2021. Перевод с английского Ольги Великановой'.