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Certificates of Merit (Pochetnye Gramoty) in Late Soviet Rural Communities: Between Performing Materiality of the State and Shaping Beliefs and Subjectivities

Sat, November 23, 4:00 to 5:45pm, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Floor: 5, Sierra F

Abstract

The paper will examine rural subjectivities in the late Soviet period by focusing on villagers’ attitudes towards the state. Instead of following the narrative of the disintegration of late Soviet society and people’s growing disbelief in the state, I will engage a material perspective to transcend the usual doublethink paradigm. The aim of this contribution is to discuss the complexity of the late Soviet experience with its volatile and contingent participation in and distance from the political regime through the lens of Soviet “certificates of merit” (pochetnye gramoty) that were awarded for various kinds of achievements in professional and social life. As “vibrant” things (Bennett) that produce “performative reorganization” of space and narrative (Butler and Atanasiou) and shape relations, affects, or beliefs, those certificates could become powerful actors in people’s relations to the state and shape their attitudes and subjectivities, especially in a face-to-face rural community.

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