Perestroika as a memory hole: selective amnesia, affective revival and regional photography groups in Russia

Thesis

This thesis reflects on the reasons for the selective amnesia surrounding collective feelings regarding perestroika in contemporary Russia, particularly those perceived as “positive.” At the same time, it analyses why certain grassroots photography groups that helped prepare for, and actively participated in, the period of changes in the USSR have been marginalised within mainstream historiography, both in Russia and in the West.

The structure of the dissertation reflects the conceptual evolution of my research, the rationale for which is outlined in the Introduction. There, and in Chapter One, I establish the methodological foundations and historical framework of the study. With particular attention to my initial interest in visuality, affect, and marginalised feelings through the study of photography, I also reflect on the researcher’s subjectivity within academic knowledge production. Special emphasis is placed on the concept of trauma and on critical approaches to its limitations.

Chapter Two examines photography groups in diverse regions of the Soviet Union on the eve of perestroika. I demonstrate how pre-perestroika amateur and nonconformist photographers challenged officially sanctioned affective regimes, both that of excess and of boredom, marked by sentimentality and emotional polarisation, by visualising more complex, nuanced, and everyday feelings.

Chapters Three and Four present two case studies of local communities in the RSFSR and propose methodological frameworks that move beyond trauma theory. One such framework conceptualises the period as a democratic socialist project; this approach is developed in Chapter Three through an analysis of the Ryazan collectives Oka and Meshera. I argue that their exclusion from mainstream historical narratives should be understood in the context of the collapse of democratic left-wing alternatives. Another framework reconceptualises memory lacunae through the lenses of decolonial, imperial, and regional studies, which I apply in Chapter Four through a case study of the Gorky-based groups Volga and Poisk.

In the Conclusion, I outline directions for future research that foreground the inclusion of “epistemic peripheries” into scholarship and argue for their importance in developing more inclusive and politically attentive historiographies of perestroika.

Authors: Musvik, V

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xoxvqnmyj
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: Russian, English
• Keywords: perestroika; nonconformist photography; amateur photography; photography clubs
• Subjects: history of photography; history of perestroika; late Soviet history