October celebrations in Siberia during the Great Patriotic War: a commemorative aspect

The aim of the article is to characterize the commemorative features of the October celebrations, arranged in the cities - the regional centers of Siberia - during the Great Patriotic War and in the year of its completion. The author used unpublished office documents stored in four archives of Siberia, daily newspapers published in Novosibirsk, Omsk, Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk (1941-1945) as research sources. The author determines the place and role of commemorations in festive scenarios, their typical examples are presented. Also special conditions of celebrations peculiar to Siberia during the war period have been determined, and the mobilization value of commemorative events has been explained. The author has ascertained that in the years of the Great Patriotic War the typical scenario of celebrating anniversaries of the October revolution changed. The commemorative component of the October celebrations waned. The revolution was briefly and generally mentioned. Certain commemorative practices popular before the war, for instance evenings of commemoration, almost disappeared. In festive scenarios, the focus was on the collective listening to live radio broadcast of the speeches of Joseph Stalin. On 7 November the leader congratulated the people on the anniversary of the revolution, gave an official assessment of its value, summed up the interim results of the war and set new fighting tasks. Speeches of party functionaries made in the course of the celebrations locally were formulaic and mostly repeated the content of Stalin's speech. On 7 November parades and demonstrations were still held in the cities of Siberia. The history of the revolution became a backdrop but not the main content of the celebration, which was used with the purpose of strengthening patriotism, indoctrination of the population with the faith in victory and the mobilization of the Siberians for labor feats to help the front. In the evening of 7 November revolutionary films, both old and new, were still shown in cinemas of Siberia. At the same time, a lot of films on topical issues of World War II appeared in the repertoire. During the wartime, on 7 November there was almost no reminiscing of the October revolution at official events. Honoring the heroes of the revolution halted. During celebrations no attention was devoted to the local history of the revolution and Civil War, reminiscing the casualties of Kolchak's regime ceased in Siberia. In the beginning of the war, on 7 November the following slogan was used: "We will not give back the attainments of the October revolution"! By the end of the war the propaganda reflected the new official concept of the October revolution. The heroism and victory of the Russian people was proclaimed. It was confirmed by examples of revolutionary history and by examples of the Great Patriotic War. In 1945 propaganda reported that the victory in the Great Patriotic War proved that the path of the historical development that the Russians followed after the revolution was right.

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