THE ROAD ALMOST TAKEN – METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND ELEMENTS IN THE STUDY OF PREWAR TOTALITARIAN PUBLIC SPACE
THE ROAD ALMOST TAKEN – METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND ELEMENTS IN THE STUDY OF PREWAR TOTALITARIAN PUBLIC SPACE

Summary/Abstract: In an official propaganda story from 1956 called A great force of citizenship some women are given as example of what it is to be a great communist: In the Capital (of the region o.n.)…in just about 5 months, almost 200.000 women have participated to a number of citizen activities as: mending and electrification of the streets, a good management of children and medical establishments, of parks and other green spaces etc. … As a result, 380 women’s committees and almost 5.000 group delegates were trained for patriotic games as to mobilize their own in the plowing campaign, the growing of vegetables and of silkworms. The universe thus described, by this kind of activities is by itself a social one, taken in a whole from which work, party fidelity, a care for the future and for an imagined now is are all present. The women live in a public space, but as a mobilised to mobilise element, simple followers of decisions taken at face value as being true. An abnormal space, inscribed in conscious activities, settled and ruled by the all-knowing party power. We begin from the idea that, in using the public space, the party power – named simply from thereafter as power – takes not just the elements regarding control – such as keeping order and a measure of public civility but also try a rewriting of human typologies, as the target to be congruent to communist policies. Even if a work plan and a final utopic ideal exist in theory, the real inner workings of the mechanism are those best suited to indicate success or failure. Or, on another way to put it – the distance between the theory and practical applicability is greater as the moment of utopic finality comes closer. How do we know that? This is the place where the idea of public space comes into place. Starting with some empirical definitions, followed by some concrete aspects we will try to reason if this elements is or it is not annexed to the communist regime.

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