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Sociodynamics
Reference:

Social Memory in the Narratives of Siberians: the Truthfulness of History and the Truth of Memory

Logunova Larisa

ORCID: 0000-0001-8417-913X

Professor of the Department of Sociological Sciences of Kemerovo State University

650000, Russia, Kemerovskaya oblast', g. Kemerovo, ul. Krasnaya, 6

vinsky888@mail.ru
Mazhenina Ekaterina

ORCID: 0000-0001-7403-5677

PhD in Sociology

Associate Professor of the Department of Sociological Sciences, Kemerovo State University

650000, Russia, Kemerovskaya oblast', g. Kemerovo, ul. Krasnaya, 6

ekka0808@mail.ru
Rychkov Vladislav Andreevich

ORCID: 0000-0002-5771-2995

postgraduate student of the Department of Sociological Sciences Kemerovo State University

650024, Russia, Kemerovskaya oblast', g. Kemerovo, ul. Krasnaya, 6

Vladislav-rychkov@ya.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-7144.2022.2.37442

Received:

31-01-2022


Published:

05-03-2022


Abstract: Historical memory is a part of social memory, it is politicized and does not allow alternatives in interpretations. Social memory is valueless, it is transmitted from older generations to descendants in the form of images and interpretations of events. If the state policy corresponds to the sociocodes of the community culture, then the images of social memory do not contradict the interpretations and content of historical documents. Historical events of a traumatic nature, as a rule, differentiate interpretations of past events, reflected by contradictions between official and unofficial narratives.The object of the study is social memory imprinted in unofficial narratives of Siberians that contradict official historical narratives. The subject of the study is the contradictions caused by different interpretations of historical events between subjects of official history and carriers of social memory. The novelty lies in the application of a hybrid methodological complex, with the help of which the analysis of contradictions in official and unofficial narratives of Siberians in different historical periods and in different socio-political situations (resettlement, dispossession, war years) was carried out. The peculiarities of the interpretation of empirical material are related to the specifics of understanding the contradictions between the truth of history and the truth of historical memory. At the junction of the types of truth, one can see the uniqueness of historical reality. The authors have revealed that social memory determines the differentiation of interpretations of historical events, includes a program of social inheritance of images of the past. The meanings of "historical truth" and the truth of memory are ambiguously intertwined in the collective consciousness of Siberians.


Keywords:

social memory, historical memory, sociocodes of memory, memory policy, historical trauma, official narratives, hybrid research complex, cultural trauma, Unofficial narratives, family and ancestral memory

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

 

Introduction. Social memory is the mnemic content of the collective consciousness of the community, which stores the experience of ancestors necessary for the survival of descendants. This is a pure, politically independent memory of the people. Events reflected by the collective consciousness of community become history. In the process of such reflection, a certain discourse is formed, memory is split into social and historical. The first is written by the fates of the members of the community, unites and solidifies the community by the fact of the unity of historical destiny. The second was created by historians, represents the image of community for internal (for "their own") and external (for "strangers") comprehension. Scientific works, documentaries with the prefix "pseudo" are a means of manipulating memory images. Over time, people forget the deeds of the executioners, praise what, according to ethical and legal laws, requires repentance. A person can be socially disoriented in life and political elections by playing on painful memories, mythologizing the past. Mythology is attractive for its romance, helps to make the consciousness and behavior of citizens loyal. But an ideology built on myths is usually destroyed, unable to withstand the tests of economic and political crises: society remains one-on-one with the truth of history, spiritually devastated and traumatized. The "historical trauma" [1, p. 6-16], which deprives society of unity, is followed by a more destructive "cultural trauma" attacking the value system, leading to anomie.

Social memory is a resource of community culture, embodied in the survival experience of older generations, supporting people in times of crisis. Historical memory is a political resource of the institution of power for the management of the population. The experience of older generations imprinted in social memory is publicly available without preferences to any social group, unlike historical memory, which differs in subjectivity. Historical memory is the arena of the struggle of political forces for the right to interpret the facts of the national past [2, pp.60-61].

The meanings of history and memory are contradictory. Historical memory is politicized, it claims to be "correct" in the interpretation of facts, which does not allow alternatives. Social memory is valueless. The truth of social memory allows for different interpretations: for one group, repression and dispossession is a tragedy, for another – the costs of class struggle. This determines the inconsistency of the "memory policy" (P. Nora) [3, pp. 17-50], balancing between the truth of memory and the politicization of images of the past. We believe that the politics of memory is a mechanism for overcoming contradictions, which turns official history and unofficial narratives from contradictory to mutually complementary, creates a conventional understanding of the past as a value. The experience of the ancestors (triumphant and tragic) is reinterpreted, the nation develops a "compensatory mechanism", overcoming the traumatic experience with all unpleasant memories [4, P. 8].

The purpose of this article is to study the mechanism of overcoming contradictions between the truth of social memory and the content of historical memory.

Methodology.Historical memory as an element of social memory in a meaningful sense tends to be unambiguous, is fixed in official historical narratives (M.K. Palat, P. Nora, T. Morris-Suzuki). Social memory is a phenomenon of "collective consciousness" (M. Halbwax, M. Blok, A. Mol), "the designation of all available information available in society" [5, p. 72], it includes the experience of generations, the fate of the "silent".

Social memory is connected with the semantic core of the sociocode of community – the initial self-understanding of community, integrating elements of culture. This core contains value and event meanings (conventional, sacred, mythical or real grounds about the first existence, the first ancestor, the ancestral homeland). Understanding the meaning of the sociocode helps to explain the specifics of mentality, collective decisions, and people's behavior. Sociocode, social and historical memory are the main concepts of the theoretical constructions of our research.

The methodological basis was interdisciplinary, cultural-historical, phenomenological, comparative approaches. In a hybrid research complex (Logunova L. Yu. Socio-philosophical analysis of family and ancestral memory as a program of social inheritance: diss. ... Doctor of Philos Sciences, Kemerovo: KemSU, 2011. 267 p.) integrated methods of studying historical and social memory at the micro and macro levels of social interactions. This corresponds to the rules of a multi-level approach in the analysis of historical situations. The complex combines the research potential of the methods of "understanding" sociology (interviews, restoration of family history, biographical method, analysis of the sociocode of memory), historical disciplines (genealogical, comparative analysis).

The array of empirical material consists of transcripts of in–depth interviews with Siberians, telling about events related to resettlement, dispossession, deprivation, repression that took place on the territory of Siberia in the late XIX - mid XX centuries: a database of family histories of Siberians collected in 2001-2021 with the help of narrative interviews (922 stories); historical documents characterizing the official a version of the interpretation of events (15 documents), personal documents and archival files of the repressed (895 documents). The combination of these materials made it possible to see a mnemically differentiated picture of a historical event.

The methodological position of the authors excludes the search for errors in the narratives of respondents. The totality of facts, inaccuracies, emotions, makes up the plot of "resisting stories" ([6, pp. 151-167]), requiring specific understanding in the traditions of qualitative sociology, laid down by W. Thomas and F. Znanetsky. It is not memory errors that are being investigated, but the causes of these inaccuracies (the fear factor, forgetting "inconvenient" relatives, unpleasant facts). The respondent's statement is understood as a fact, neither true nor false. The meaning that the informant put into the message is analyzed [7, pp. 106-109]. The subject of the analysis is meanings that are compared with factography from official sources. Subjectivity becomes a methodological principle.

Results.The facts chosen by the authors are nodal historical situations of a traumatic nature, reflected in the fate of Siberians. The analysis of these situations consisted in comparing human interpretations (facts of social memory) and documentary evidence on the event (historical facts).

In 1861, another wave of resettlement of peasants to the east from "indigenous Russia" began. The process of free peasant colonization ended by 1889 with the beginning of the implementation of the state resettlement policy. An eyewitness of the events, peasant I. E. Belikov, records in his memoirs this picture of resettlement: "The wagons, loaded with goods acquired by grandfather's back, stretched out. ... It seemed to me – as a light representation!" (A letter from a peasant I. E. Belyakov about resettlement to Siberia // Russian wealth. 1899. No. 3. 2 ed. pp. 1-14.). Expressing a desire to move to Siberia, the peasants appealed to the Minister of State Property with a request to allocate a cash allowance for travel and lifting. "... We humbly ask Your Excellency ... to show paternal mercy to us, twenty-three families, peasants of the village of Tsarevshchina, oppressed by poverty from lack of land, be pleased to make your order to transfer us to the Tomsk province" (Russian State Historical Archive. F. 1291. Op. 53 (1867). D. 356. L. 2-3 vol. Original, manuscript). Zemstvo officials of the Tomsk province collected letters from Poltava settlers to their relatives and fellow villagers. The author of one of the letters informs the brothers that the peasant dream of free farming can be realized in Siberia. Here, "you can mow hay as much as you want and plow the same for bread, as much as you want and you have enough strength; we have cattle: four horses and three milking cows, and bought ten rubles each piece; ... we bought bread on the vine for forty-two rubles and threshed a hundred pounds of wheat and now, Thank God, we all live." The peasant asked to write an answer to the address: "write: to the Tomsk province of the Barnaul district, Lyapinsky volost, settlement of Novorazinsky" (Resettlement from the Poltava province from 1861 to July 1, 1900: Comp. on behalf of Poltava. Gubernia. upr. Issue 1. Stat. bureau of Poltava. Gubernia Zemstvo. Poltava: Type-lit. L. Frishberg, 1900-1905. 119 p.).

The family and ancestral memory of Siberians preserved the facts of resettlement [8]. In interviews, they told stories of the resettlement of their great-grandfathers. On my grandfather's side, we come from the Tambov province. In 1871 they moved to the Altai Territory (Troitsky district). In 1875, a land allotment was allocated to the family (E. Goncharova; here and further, the names of informants who agreed to publish fragments from their family histories are indicated in parentheses). Timofey and Sofya Tsubatov lived in the city of Gomel (Belarus). They moved to Siberia during the Stolypin reform. The family had three daughters and one son. In Russia, land was given only for sons, and according to the reform, for daughters. The land was given in the village of Bolsherechka, Bolotninsky district in the Novosibirsk region (I.e., Podgornaya). The homeland of my ancestors is the Oryol province. My great-grandfather Osip Pavlovets lived there. At the end of the XIX century. their family moved to Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk region (d. Pavlovets). Not all family stories have information about the historical homeland, but the meaning of the stories about resettlement is identical. The villagers heard that there were a lot of vacant lands in Siberia, sent walkers to explore. Several poor families agreed to relocate and in 1912 came to Siberia. They settled in the village of Bayarak, Morozovsky district, where immigrants from their region already lived. Dug dugouts. They were allocated an allotment of land. They began to live alone, got cattle, mowed the grass themselves and cultivated the land (the history of the Root-Grater family).

The toponymy of Siberia began to change. There were villages named after the surnames of the settlers (Maltsevo, Karkavino, Zalesovo). In 1900, a drought began on the Don, and the family was forced to leave their native land. All the families in the village packed up, mounted their horses and went to look for a better place to live. The six-month-long road led to a wonderful place with rich nature, an abundance of fish in the river, with gorgeous pastures. Cossack Polomoshnov named his new home after himself. So the village of Polomoshnoe (E. Tkalenko).

Having survived the difficulties of resettlement, the Siberians have arranged their lives, reproducing the sociocode of peasantry in a new place. A territorial community was formed with a special socio-spiritual quality – "Sibirism". Mobility, willingness to take risks, initiative of the settlers laid the foundation of the Siberian character. The descendants of the settlers told about the life of Siberians in the early twentieth century. They were not poor. The Empire gave money for resettlement (S. Kononchuk). The descendants of the first settlers testified that they were "well or hard." Started a household: 2 horses, 2 cows, pigs and other livestock. They lived well (N. Kurinskaya). On their own, without having farmhands, they got 12 cows, 6 horses, sheep pigs, kept their own vegetable garden, cultivated the land, received a good harvest of grain (V. Frolova). The Zabelins were among the well-to-do peasants. Our family has never been famous for special wealth, but, before the onset of hard times, we lived in prosperity: we raised cattle, had our own arable land. It's amazing, so many years have passed, and I can still name the animals "by their heads": three horses, five pigs, one stallion and three cows with calves (A. Vorfeeva).

The basis of the family and ancestral memory of Siberian peasants is the sociocode of "land and freedom", decent work, to ensure the life of the family. The government's land reforms are doomed to success if they take into account the meanings of this sociocode in their content. Therefore, the resettlement policy of the tsarist government, with all the contradictions, did not conflict with the ideal ideas of peasants about normal life and family prosperity, about strong farms on free lands. Agrarian reforms based on the experience of social memory, according to E. I. Koznova, fit into the cultural and historical context (Koznova I. E. Social memory of the peasantry as a factor of agrarian transformations. URL: http://fadr.msu.ru/archives/mailing-list/priv-agr/art-rus/msg00021.html (accessed 21.01.2022).

The revolutionary events of 1917 were not imprinted in the family and ancestral memory of Siberians. In their daily concerns, they did not pay attention to the radical nature of historical changes. These changes occurred after the dekulakization campaign, which dramatically changed the fate of Siberian families.

In 1927, the peasants, expecting favorable conditions for the sale of their agricultural products, stopped handing over grain. The process of forced collectivization began in the Urals and Siberia. The families of the "kulaks" were deported to the north, to the taiga, receiving the status of "special settlers". The property of the deprived was transferred to collective farms. In the grain procurement campaign in 1928, the methods of roundups and searches, confiscation were used. Researcher of repression in Siberia S. A. Papkov, referring to archival documents of those years, writes that in the southern regions of Siberia, the authorities took the last cow from 60-70% of individual peasants [9, p. 97]. He reports on the facts of the famine that swept Siberia from the first months of 1932, illustrating with archival documents. So, the secretary of the Biysk district committee V. Ostroumova complained to the regional committee that "the atmosphere in the district is getting thicker every day. All day long there are walkers, delegations ... with one cry: "Bread!" (Party Archive of the Novosibirsk Region, F. 3, op. 2, d. 207, l. 34.). Peasant Ustin Drobatenko (Chernousovka village of the Omsk district) writes to the chairman of the Central Committee-RKI Ya. Rudzutak: "90 people died of hunger and cold in our country during the first quarter. ... All the dogs were overeated, even the dead ones.... But next to us, 10 kilometers away, is Kazakhstan. ... Only the bones of people are lying on the roads, and the kids are left in yurts. Worms sharpen them alive. ..." (Party Archive of the Novosibirsk Region, f. 7, op. 1, d. 267, l. 82-83.).

By the summer of 1930, the season of mass arrests and executions began. In the failures of the organization of the collective farm movement, they began to look for pests – "enemies of the people". In the minutes of the meeting of the bureau of the Zapsibkraikom of the CPSU(b) dated 09/15/1937, No. 38 decided "To propose to tt. Barkov and Maltsev within 4-5 days to make a proposal to the regional committee in which areas to organize open trials of enemies of the people, pests of agriculture. ... The processes should be carefully prepared, with the invitation of collective farmers and with wide coverage in the press" ("Enemies of the collective farm peasantry before the Soviet court" // Soviet Siberia. 1937. No. 217. September 20). On 09/16/1937, the leadership of the Zapsibkraikom informs the editorial offices of local newspapers about the planned trials "over a counterrevolutionary wrecking group from among the former senior employees of the Northern District" who were in the "Trotskyist-Bukharin sabotage and wrecking counterrevolutionary organization" and "sought to undermine the welfare of collective farms and collective farmers." The telegram recommended that journalists "widely publish the materials of the trial, expose to workers and collective farmers the methods and techniques of wrecking activities of sworn enemies of the people" [10, pp. 98-103]. The reaction was lightning fast. A visiting session of the special board of the regional court was held in the village of Severny on September 18. "In the dock there are former senior employees of the district who have been engaged in sabotage and sabotage counterrevolutionary work for several years. ... The trial of the right-Trotskyist spy gang is taking place with the greatest attention from all working people. The editorial office of the local newspaper continues to receive numerous resolutions of rallies and general meetings of collective farmers expressing the anger and indignation of the people against fascist hirelings and saboteurs who tried to undermine the economic power of collective farms who were plotting the restoration of capitalism in our country. All resolutions unanimously demand to apply to the Trotskyist-Bukharin degenerates who sold themselves to fascism the highest penalty – execution" ("Enemies of the collective farm peasantry before the Soviet court" // Soviet Siberia. 1937. No. 217. September 20). During another show trial held on the same days (18-19.09.1937), the "former" leaders of the Northern District, "intentionally infected with infectious diseases (plague, ulcer, sap) of cattle belonging to collective farmers and collective farms" pleaded guilty to counter-revolutionary work… According to the verdict of the Special Board of the West Siberian Regional Court, these enemies of the people were shot. At the open trial in the Northern District, many collective farmers were present not only in this district, but also in neighboring ones. The course of the trial was widely covered in the regional and local press" (Letter from the Secretary of the West Siberian Regional Committee of the CPSU(b) R.I.Eikhe to I.V.Stalin "On conducting open show trials of enemies of the people - pests of agriculture" // State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region. F. P-3. Op. 11. D. 29. l. 14-18. Typewritten copy). A copy of the "open" trial took place on 18-19.09.1937 over "pests operating at the Leninsk-Kuznetsk point "Zagotzerno". The resolution states that "the judicial sentences against the enemies of the people ... were met with unanimous approval of the broadest masses of workers, collective farmers and employees ... The convicts "were sentenced to execution. The sentence has been carried out" (Letter from the Secretary of the West Siberian Regional Committee of the CPSU(b) R.I. Eikhe to I.V. Stalin about holding open show trials of enemies of the people — pests of agriculture". Ibid.).

The secret court convicted 7 engineers and technicians of the gold mining industry of the region, 11 coal mining specialists, 21 employees of consumer cooperation and the state bank, 27 specialists of the cattle breeding state farms system, 10 employees of scientific institutions. In total – at least 150 people (Koznova I. E. Social memory of the peasantry as a factor of agrarian transformations. URL: http://fadr.msu.ru/archives/mailing-list/priv-agr/art-rus/msg00021.html (accessed 21.04.2021). Only 20 years later, it became possible to review the verdict on these "cases". At the end of 1957, the employees of the investigative department of the Novosibirsk region, who reviewed 27 cases against 324 people who lived in the Northern District in 1937-1938, came to the conclusion that all these "cases" were falsified, and the persons who passed through them were subject to rehabilitation (State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region. F. P-3. Op. 1. D. 854. L. 3OB.).

The enthusiasm of collective farmers and workers described in newspaper articles contradicts the narratives of the unofficial nature of these years. It is difficult to talk about subjects who joyfully welcomed the executions of fellow countrymen. Judging by the recollections of witnesses, Siberians perceived dispossession as a redistribution of the goods acquired by their labor in favor of "idlers". The revolution was invented by those who did not want to work. I remember we were returning from the arable land, and the neighbors' idlers were sitting on the bench with an accordion. And then they came to power (A. Bukhalova). My grandmother told me how people were taken away and taken away irrevocably, how hard workers who worked from dawn to dawn were dispossessed, and idlers who did not want to work were in power (S. Nikitenko). The kulaks were wealthy peasants. They lived well because they worked from dawn to dusk. As my grandmother told me, she worked in the field from early childhood. She had already met the dawn in the field and so on until very late in the evening. And the farmhands were lazy people who didn't want to do anything, they drank and walked. Therefore, when the dispossession took place, these same farmhands squandered everything acquired by honest labor with their fists. And nothing good came out anyway (A. Nike). In the thirties and "funnels" came. Black cars took people away, and no one saw them anymore. Someone whispered something, and there is no man. My grandfather told me that the village began to rise during the NEP. They were selling barrels, fir, someone was bortnichal. Our family was engaged in hunting. Tar was cooked, birch bark was collected, everything was taken to the market in Mariinsk. The people began to live better. And then they began to drive people into collective farms, where the poorest became the chairmen. People were forced to plow the land, grow bread that would not be born there. There was a plan from above, and that was it (A. Fakhrieva).

After a decent life, Siberians had to put up with poverty, to which they could not oppose anything. Kornev's great-grandfather Alexey Filippovich did not immediately adopt Soviet laws. It was a pity to part with what had been acquired for a decade: to take all the cattle to the common farmstead, to hand over agricultural equipment. Only in 1935 he joined the collective farm under pressure. In 1937, repression began. Officials reminded him that he did not immediately accept the new government. Armed men arrived in the autumn. The grandmother and the children were kicked out of the house, and the grandfather was put in a "funnel" and taken to a transfer point in the village of Yagunovo, and then sent north to Narym, from where he never returned. His fate is not known. Grandmother Arina Yakovleva was left alone with 6 children without a home, without a farmstead. While she was hiding, 2 children died (L. Korneva). My grandmother recalled how cruelly her father was treated. During Stalin's repressions, her father was the chairman of the collective farm. They wrote a "denunciation" on him, that he stole 2 bags of wheat, which was buried in his garden. When the check came, the wheat was found and the father was put in prison, where he died. Years later, a letter came saying that the father had died innocently in vain (R. Sarsimbayev). Our family lived in the village of Mulachi, Nerchinsky district. They had 11 children. During Stalin's repressions, they fell under the repressive meat grinder. They chased all the kulaks. They have some kind of living creatures there, like a pig. Slanders and denunciations were welcomed. The neighbors informed on our family that they allegedly began to live well. Danil Osipovich, was convicted in 1932 as a malicious fist and imprisoned. The family does not know where and how he died. His wife and all the children were sent in cold wagons in the winter to the Tselinograd region. All the children died on the way. (V. Grechko). The family had large pastures, multi-hectare lands when they were dispossessed. They had no farmhands: there were many workers in the family. Everyone who worked on the land was recognized as kulaks and everything was taken away. Elizar hid a bag of grain for the children, but on a tip they came to them and took the last one (p. Tkalenko). It's simple: there were 2 cows, 2 horses. They were dispossessed and sent to Osinniki. My mother was very young, but she remembers that people came, loaded them into a cart and just took them away (Y. Ilchishina). My mother told me when the films showed moments that they come into the house, take out things, and at this time the family is standing and the elders are holding the children's shoulders, silently watching – this was really the case. Everything is so well imprinted in the memory (V. Karmanova).

In 1928, the campaign of "grain procurements" became a traumatic factor for the peasants, which led to the destruction of habitual life practices. The authorities forbade them to dispose of the fruits of their labor. Article 107 and the destruction of property threatened all dissenters. "By June 1931, the main plan for the elimination of the Kulaks in Siberia was completed, 39,788 peasant families, deprived of any sources of livelihood, recovered to fight for their lives in the dense taiga and on the construction sites of the GULAG" [9, p. 53]. In the early thirties, we were dispossessed. They took everything: a good house and the rest of the property. We were quite prosperous, because my father and brother worked hard all their lives. But for all of them they turned out to be thieves under another government (A. Kruglova). They all fell under dekulakization, as well as those who did not accept the advent of Soviet power. They took everything. Even when there was nothing to take, samovars were taken away. Even bath brooms (F. Nutrdinov).

In our empirical database there are stories of witnesses of repression and attempts to hide the traces of crime by the new government. I remember very well how my mother told me that they lived opposite the barracks where some of the repressed were shot. And then they were burned in a large pit behind these barracks (T. Davydov). E. Reinik testifies that a family of kulaks were shot in their village, to whom the villagers treated well. These people helped thresh the grain of the whole village, they were not proud of their wealth. But all their property was taken away from them in favor of the collective farm. The executioners dumped the bodies of the executed into the pit, explaining to the neighbors that the wealth was made on blood. But we knew that they worked a lot, so they got rich. And then one of those who shot, somehow went into the forest and disappeared. No one went to look for him. And the other one had his belly ripped open with a pitchfork at night. The culprit was never found. Other evidence of executions in the 1930s. in the dungeons of the NKVD transit prison in the village of Kolpashevo. The villagers guessed about the atrocities that were going on there. The facts were revealed in the spring of 1979 during a strong flood on the Ob River. The river washed away the high bank and residents saw a secret cemetery. The authorities began to destroy the remnants of the cliff with explosions. But the great-grandmother remembers that she saw how the whole Ob was covered in corpses (G. Dubovitsky).

The memories of informants about the pre-war period are filled with the emotion of fear. The authorities were afraid. There was a sense of injustice. Dekulakizing, property was taken away and relocated to an empty land where there are no living conditions. Many died when moving (e. Goncharova). The authorities were treated with respect, but with fear. They were afraid for their lives, for their loved ones (K. Petrov). In 1937, my grandfather was arrested on the denunciation of a colleague. All the neighbors shunned each other, became suspicious of each other. Some sympathized with single women. There was no money, they ate quinoa (F. Zarylbekova). Keep silent more and talk less. No one could be trusted in such times. People were brought to the NKVD and shot within a few days according to a statement that neighbors said out of envy. The victim allegedly said bad things about Stalin and Lenin. In the NKVD, people were brought to the point that they recognized what they did not do (P. Krishtal). Siberians tried to distance themselves from the new government. The relationship with the "superiors" had a crafty character. They spoke in whispers, they were afraid to say too many words.

The authorities have provoked a silent conflict with the population by harsh actions. Siberians could not oppose anything to the actions of the authorities. The silent experience of a traumatic event is passed down from generation to generation. This is a form of social protection. When a group is silent, it is difficult to accuse it of destructive behavior towards the authorities and to deprive it again. "The people are silent." But the silent conflict manifests itself when new facts emerge that are difficult to keep secret. Social memory becomes a catalyst for protest mood.

The habit of the Siberian peasant to live "prosperous" came into conflict with the ideology of collective poverty of the builders of communism. The sociocode of the peasantry was the reason for the rejection of collectivization, as evidenced by the "voices of the silent". One opinion can be refuted by the methodological claim of subjectivity. But the claim cannot be presented in the information that fills the cluster about the event, describing the same pictures of what is happening in different settlements of Siberia.

It is difficult to close the social memory of a community in an archive under a secret stamp. It will reveal its truth in the mechanisms of social inheritance. There is always a mnemic trail behind an event, even of a classified status. For a sociologist, a marker of mnemic discomfort is contradictions in unofficial and official narratives that tell about a particular event. This discomfort is a conflict between the collective experience of the group or community that experienced the situation and the officially accepted interpretation of these events. Experience is represented by generality in the truth of memory. Not being a "historical truth", the experience is fixed in social memory, inherited by descendants who have the right to the memory of their ancestors. This right will be defended, despite the requirements of the "correctness" of the understanding of the past, tacitly or openly. Community will protect the meanings that social memory preserves. The laws on the regulation of historical memory, composed by the rulers, are powerless before the laws of the functioning of social memory. If the institutions of power do not give honest exhaustive answers to people's questions about their relatives or the facts of historical events, then traces of memory give rise to speculation, social memory is shaped into myths. The more unpopular the decision of the authorities, the stronger the mnemic resistance of the community.

The events provoking the "memory wars" are considered as a historical or cultural trauma (P. Shtompka). The logic of life leads to healing from trauma. This happens at the micro and macro levels of life. In everyday life, forgiveness is possible, in the socio-political sphere, the healing of the collective consciousness of the community is manifested in a balanced policy of memory. The policy of reproach or oblivion, expressed in variations of the scenario of state greatness, drives the trauma into the deep layers of memory. This abscess is revealed in the life of the next generations by another trauma, when archives are opened, the secrets of the ancestors become a cultural shock for descendants.

The policy of consent presupposes forgiveness. This means giving up hope for another past, ideologically reinterpreted history. A consensus is needed on the content of the "historical truth", taking into account the social differentiation of the content of social memory. This is a policy of recognizing the fact of history as a tragedy not only on the part of the deprived categories of the population, but also the tragedy of the authorities who ruled the country using the tools of repression. Forgiveness is not the triumph of injustice. This is the acquisition of a new quality of collective consciousness – the acquisition of national dignity, the acceptance of historical destiny. The policy of forgiveness is not a surrender, but a dialogue, the organization of platforms for discussing the events of history, a willingness to respect the memory of all categories of the population who have experienced a single historical fate.

Life in the rear during the war is one of the most contradictory images of history, which documents and memories of witnesses preserve. Official narratives depict an inspired rush of workers. The editorial of the newspaper "Soviet Siberia", chosen by a random method, is devoted to the competition for the right to report on the exploits of labor: "We undertake to complete the delivery of bread to the state no later than December 18, we also decided to donate 4,200 pounds of bread to the Red Army fund, to deduct 200 thousand rubles for the construction of a squadron of combat aircraft. ... Collective farmers of the agricultural cartel "Flax grower", Maslyaninsky district". People came out before the meeting and "contributed bread to the defense fund": "Chairman Comrade. The Bolognese contributed 7 pounds of bread and 9 pounds of potatoes, the collective farmer I. T. Kozlov 11 pounds of bread and 12 potatoes ... many others contributed. ... We back up our signature with another deduction of 30 thousand rubles for the construction of a tank column named after Comrade Stalin." On the same page of the newspaper it is reported that "the Kirov shoe factory has exceeded ... plans.  ... As a gift for the new year, the factory staff undertook to produce 20 thousand pairs of shoes in excess of the plan" (Soviet Siberia. No. 295. 1942., p. 1).

The work of Siberians in the rear was a powerful resource for victory. However, behind the pathos of the newspaper line were the voices of those who experienced the effect of "decree justice" in the field of labor relations. The Decree "on criminal liability for violation of labor discipline" (dated 06/26/1940) practically replaced the Criminal Code (Vedomosti of the USSR Armed Forces. 1940. No. 20; decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of 26 Dec. 1941 // Vedomosti VS USSR. 1942. No. 2.)

The following year, the statistics of criminal cases doubled in Siberia "due to non-fulfillment of production plans at a number of mines and enterprises" [11, pp. 507-509].

The mass and disorderly condemnation of workers to various criminal punishments, by reducing the norm of bread ("punishment by hunger"), was the most important characteristic of the Decree. Respondents reported that they "did not leave the mine for days." Comparing a woman with a hardworking animal at this time is quite correct. When my grandfather was taken to the front, my grandmother was left alone, pregnant with her second child. In 1942, a boy was born. Praskovya worked on the collective farm for workdays from morning to night. When she went to work, she tied the children to the bed like dogs, so as not to get burned on the stove, twice a day she ran to feed them (Germashevs). My mother told me that it was very difficult in wartime, it happened that they ate quinoa, and when the first snow fell, they collected fallen grains from collective farm fields (Yu. Ilyichishina). These were very hungry times, we were literally swollen with hunger." To survive, at times they had to eat even the most ordinary grass (R. Sarsimbayev about grandmother Bogdanova Claudia Ivanovna).

Women, as a rule, recall the specifics of work in the rear. As a seventeen-year-old girl, I worked manually on a drilling machine, hammering piles. Then she worked as a stoker at the boiler house (V. Nosko). People remembered everything: the famine, and the senseless "justice" of wartime. We have dubbed the law "on spikelets" the law on "a handful of peas". For a handful of grain in your pocket, you could be declared an enemy of the people (I. Pankratov). They could give 10 years for a bunch of green onions. It was forbidden to collect spikelets left after harvesting in the fields. They had to be handed over to the collective farm. (A. Krasilova). I was eighteen when I was caught with spikelets. We were alone with a friend. She managed to escape, and I was left with both her bag and mine. They tried me for both bags, but I didn't give my friend away. I was given ten years in prison. She was released after the war. Old. It was already difficult to get married (E. K.).

The revelations of informants broke the patterns of a single mobilization impulse. No one was eager to go to war (I. N.) My father was taken to the front. All the men were taken away. I remember that raids were organized on those who were hiding in attics (N. S.). Grandfather Zakhar fought, reached Poland. My father is a tank driver, he reached Berlin, in 1946 he returned. He told terrible things, especially when he drank, cried (E. Timoshkina).

Historical or cultural trauma is usually followed by a traumatic situation that is more severe in terms of destruction [1, p. 6-16]. The experience of a cascade of traumatic events provoked the collapse of the community into "heroes" and "enemies of the people". The differentiation of narratives today shows the continuing polarization of society. Historical memory, the truth of history, the truth of memory become bastions of politics. The truth of memory resists attempts to distort the past, demands recognition of the right to memory of all social groups with the presentation of their narratives. The truthfulness of history depends on the wise policy of memory, which orients society to solidarity on the issues of the country's past. The historical truth is not what the population was able to convince of. This is a historical memory that consistently flows with its content and images into the fields of social memory [12, pp. 196-197].

Historical science claims to be objective, but for a person facts live in the format not of dates, but of interpretations. The interdisciplinary approach allows researchers to comprehend numerous interpretations. Working with narratives, especially of an informal nature, is based on the rule: there are no objective narratives. Official narratives also have their own subject – narrator. Any narrative has a subjective semantic construction. Meaning becomes a tool for defending one's understanding of the event. It cannot be right or wrong, and it is never neutral. People will always defend this meaning. It is possible to force them to stop discussing the event, but it is impossible to force a person to give up his sense of understanding the event. To point out to a person that there is a mistake in his memories that does not correspond to the historical truth means to show incompetence in understanding the essence of public consciousness. People will defend their "mistakes" [13, p. 488]. The objectivity of the research vision of the event rests on the acceptance of all the meanings of various narratives concerning one historical event [14]. It can be difficult to talk about your past. Few people are willing to remember mistakes beyond the control of human choice. "We used to live better." This is the motto of the witnesses of the turn of the times. And everyone understands it in their own way (V. Myaklov). The fact of the existence of opposite interpretations of events in narratives is a signal of the mental tension of public consciousness, latent disagreement, nonverbalized conflict that can blow up the glossy plane of ideological reality [15].

Conclusion

The collective consciousness of Siberians is characterized by social differentiation of images of historical events [16]. Thanks to the mechanism of social inheritance, descendants accept the symbolic capital of achievements and tragedies, the meanings of "historical truth" and the truth of memory, voiced by the "voices of the silent". Historical and social memory are based on narratives – representations of images of the past. Social memory preserves knowledge about the events of the past ("so my grandfather told me") [17]. Historical memory is based on the belief in the creditworthiness of official narratives ("so they wrote in the newspapers"). Methodological rules for working with narratives allow to mitigate this contradiction, taking into account that collective memory is socially differentiated, its content includes different meanings of people's understanding of the past, with all the peculiarities of experiencing events. [18]. The country's past cannot be heroic or shameful. The assertion by the agents of the institutions of power of any narrative as the only permissible one leads to the resistance of groups that have alternative interpretations of the event. The truth of memory is not identical to historical memory in content. The truth of memory allows for a different interpretation of the event, in accordance with the social experience of the narrator [19]. Historical memory has no alternative, it is ideologically conditioned. Comparative analysis of narratives allows us to find a balance between the construction of the state historical narrative and the "voices of the silent", whose destinies history is written.

The structure of social memory includes historical memory, the images and content of which make it possible to represent the history of the state externally. Social memory complements the images of historical memory with microhistories of people's lives [20]. The meanings of social and historical memory filled with contradictions can be mitigated by a thoughtful and balanced memory policy.

References
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The article "Social memory in the narratives of Siberians: the truth of history and the truth of memory" submitted for review is devoted to the issues of social and historical memory, their interaction and mutual influence, transformation and mythologization. The authors of the study share social and historical memory. Social memory is a resource of community culture, embodied in the survival experience of older generations, supporting people in times of crisis. Historical memory is a political resource of the institution of government for the management of the population. Historical memory is politicized, it claims to be "correct" in interpreting facts that do not allow alternatives. Social memory is valueless. The theoretical and methodological foundations of the research were the concepts of historical memory as an element of social memory, which is fixed in official historical narratives (M.K. Palat, P. Nora, T. Morris-Suzuki), social memory is a phenomenon of "collective consciousness" (M. Halbwaks, M. Blok, A. Mol historical and cultural trauma (P. Shtompka). The research methodology was compiled by a hybrid research complex (Logunova L. Yu.). The array of empirical material consists of transcripts of in–depth interviews with Siberians, telling about events related to resettlement, dispossession, deprivation, and repression that took place on the territory of Siberia in the late XIX - mid XX centuries: a database of family histories of Siberians collected in 2001-2021 using narrative interviews (922 stories); historical documents characterizing the official a version of the interpretation of events (15 documents), personal documents and archival files of the repressed (895 documents). The facts selected by the authors are nodal historical situations of a traumatic nature, reflected in the fate of Siberians. The analysis of these situations consisted in comparing human interpretations (facts of social memory) and documentary evidence on the event (historical facts). The article contains both examples of in-depth interviews of Siberians and attempts by the authors to interpret them. In conclusion, the main conclusions of the study are presented. Among which we found the following conclusion extremely interesting: "The country's past cannot be heroic or shameful. The assertion by agents of government institutions of any narrative as the only acceptable one leads to resistance from groups with alternative interpretations of the event. The truth of memory is not identical to historical memory in terms of content. The truth of memory allows for a different interpretation of the event, in accordance with the social experience of the narrator. Historical memory has no alternative, it is ideologically conditioned. A comparative analysis of narratives allows us to find a balance between the construction of the state historical narrative and the "voices of the silent," whose destinies history is written." The bibliographic list contains 20 sources, including foreign ones. The article is presented in scientific language. The material is structured and logical. Considering the above, we recommend that the article submitted for review be published.
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