Secrecy and 'Fact' in Soviet Life

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Special security regimes governed Soviet society from the very beginning up to the end. Securing loyalty, submission, and privilege by limiting the circulation of knowledge was a central lever of Soviet political life, one that created a cultural backdrop where multiple frames of often contradictory meanings surrounded the creation of “facts.” One can even speak about a “cult of secrecy” as a set of secrecy practices and attitudes. The panel will focus on three aspects of secrecy in the Soviet cultural world with each panelist bringing to bear expertise, sources, and accounts from different areas of scholarship. These include a discussion of the economic costs and benefits of secrecy to the regime, using the example of selecting personnel for promotion to management positions throughout the economy. The ways of appropriation and interpretation of “fact” on the level of everyday interaction will be addressed by focussing on the construction of space in the so-called “closed cities” of the Soviet security and defence world. Finally, on the discursive level, languages of secrecy will be analysed in relation to the official narrative in defence industries and its subversion through rumours and suspicions, and with the discussion of the nuclear bomb in Russian literature. We believe that the format of a round table—rather than individual narrowly defined papers—will be particularly effective for generating insights and discussion as it will open up a broader discussion about the nature, function, and uses of “facts” in Soviet life.

Sub Unit

• History: Russian and Eurasian, since 1924

Organizer

• Ekaterina Emeliantseva, U of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Chair

• Andrew Jenks, California State U, Long Beach

Roundtable Members

• Asif A. Siddiqi, Fordham U

• Isabel Lane, Yale U

• Mark Harrison, U of Warwick (UK)

• Ekaterina Emeliantseva, U of St. Gallen (Switzerland)