TRAUMA OF DECOSSACKIZATION IN THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF CULTURAL AND ETHNIC COMMUNITY

In: Вестник Пермского университета. Политология, Band 17, Heft 2, S. 71-81

Abstract

The article studies the features of reflection of a traumatic event in the collective memory of ethnocultural communities on the example of the consequences of the Bolshevik policy of decossackization. The conceptual foundations of the study are psychoanalytic and sociocultural approaches to the study of historical trauma as a social phenomenon, united by the collective memory of negative experiences as a source of trauma. The research is based on the materials of online communities dedicated to history, culture and revival of the Cossacks. The first stage of the study is devoted to the main elements of the traumatic narrative of decossackization (based on the model of J. Alexander). At the second stage of the study, the author, using a qualitative non-directional content analysis, names the main aspects of traumatic transformation of a collective identity of the ethno-cultural community. Society functions based on a rigid concept of the world with categorical value judgments, built on a highly conflict-prone "friend or foe" scheme. The traumatic event turns into an independent factor in the formation of a new collective identity to replace the lost one and mediates the creation of interpretations of the historical past. This trend amplifies the separation of the traumatized ethno-cultural group from the community.