Soviet splinters: national discourse and its role in postsoviet "decolonization"

Soviet cultural and political space was represented as a mosaic fastened with ideology of "friendship of peoples". In the period of Glasnost' the mosaic broke against the freedom of speech. The double ideological standards existing in the Soviet time and covered with a mask of "friendship of peoples" were opened. In the last years of the Soviet Union there appeared texts that were a clear demonstration of the broken-up "harmony". During the first post-Soviet decade national discourse became main in the Russian literature. The most discussed were questions which had not been discussed earlier, or reflections in books had other forms, for example: the national question or the topic of Others (A. Bi-tov, V. Astafev, N. Boyko, Yu. Khabibulin, E. Odinokova, V. Morozov, V. Peredelskiy, O. Larin, N. Pchelin). In the article the author researches two fields of reflection in contemporary Russian literature: (1) reflection on the friendly relations between the peoples of the former USSR and (2) the tendency of release / "decolonization" from the models of international relations imposed by the Soviet ideology of "friendship of peoples". Reflection of a negative attitude towards people of other nationalities served as the release and formation of a new sovereign. It is important that not only the "periphery" aspired to independence, but the "metropolis" also wanted to be freed from its past roles. The Russian writers describe post-Soviet wars and anti-Russian demonstrations in Ukraine, Georgia and in the Baltic states. Conversely, they describe cases of aggressive attitude to non-Russians in Russia. Thus is formed the new image of the enemy: for Russians it is the former peoples of the USSR, and for non-Russians it is Russians. The author has identified some ways of "decolonization" / release from the old relations: criticism because of historical injustice, criticism of not knowing the language, criticism because of external differences. Examples of texts are given for each of the ways. The analysis of the new texts has helped to track two post-Soviet tendencies in Russian literature: the theme of nationalism and the theme of confusion between the memories of old friendship and the reality of the new time.

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