«Thick» Patriotic Journals in the USSR: Origins of Their Tradition, Circle, and Opponents

Abstract

The paper examines the circle of “thick” Soviet conservative-patriotic journals, whose contributors tried to defend Russian national interests and values of the Russian history within the ideological framework of that time. These were, first of all, Young Guard (Molodaya gvardiya), Moscow (Moskva) and Our Contemporary (Nash sovremennik). The terms “thick patriotic journals”, “journal contributors”, and “circle of journals” are considered almost synonymous, as the author is talking about a phenomenon that, although tied to specific respected editions, extends far beyond their pages. The main thesis of the paper is that patriotic journals of the second half of the Soviet period continued and developed two long-standing trends that may seem a bit contradictory, but in fact are combined quite harmoniously. The first is the autonomous statist (yet not state-based) patriotism, which strives to bring good to Russia and the Russian people and for this purpose objects to the current government and criticizes it, wishing to bring it to reason, transform and improve, but not overthrow. The second is the justification of the current government, whose merits are not obvious to many from the point of view of long-term national and state interests. The paper examines the discussion between patriotic and liberal journals and authors generated by the famous article Inevitability (Neizbezhnost’) by V. А. Chalmayev that was printed in the Young Guard journal, publications by M. P. Lobanov and S. N. Semanov, disputes by B. M. Sarnov and V. V. Kozhinov, and other issues that are important for understanding of the subject.