“Time of Good Relations”: A Post-Soviet View at Soviet Working Life Cover Image

„Време на добри отношения“ — постсъветски поглед към съветския трудов живот
“Time of Good Relations”: A Post-Soviet View at Soviet Working Life

Author(s): Kirsti Jõesalu
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с Етнографски музей при БАН

Summary/Abstract: The decisive discourse over the soviet time in the private post-soviet narratives at the beginning of 21st century is not any more the question of repressions and suffering, in the foreground are the remembrances over the everyday life during the soviet time. The same tendency could be found also in the other post-socialist societies. In the article I’m dealing with the soviet-time working-life in the post-soviet biographies of Estonians. In my research I have analysed different types of biographical narratives, written and told ones. In this analyse I’m using public-social-private distinction in the soviet society as theoretical background, and looking at social relations on the workspace as the social realm in the soviet society. Here the works of Marc Garcelon (1997) and Elena Zdravomyslova & Viktor Voronkov (2002) have provided the theoretical tools. In the contribution I have shown how with the help of the social relations the soviet workspace has been privatised. The article asks also about the role of nostalgia and meaning of nostalgia in analysed biographical narratives. There is made the difference between restorative and reflective nostalgia (Boym 2001).

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 41-52
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Bulgarian