title: On the Illegitimacy of the Soviet Power
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Mironov, B. N.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2022-06-30T08:49:14Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2022-06-30T08:49:14Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2022-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Mironov B. N. ‘On the Illegitimacy of the Soviet Power’, Modern History of Russia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2022, pp. 8–38.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu24.2022.101
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/37021
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: Sociological polls and other sources, as well as electoral statistics, show that Soviet power in 1918–
  1989 met the main criteria for legitimacy. In 1918–1929, the majority of voters, and in 1931–1989 over 83 % of the
  electorate, were loyal to the Soviet regime, trusted the communists and the general course and current policy,
  were satisfied with the status as ordinary builders of socialism, and believed in the socialist project. Official information
  on turnout and voting is trustworthy, although it has serious shortcomings and likely underestimates the scale of the protest vote (failure to appear, damage to ballots, voting against). Election results were influenced
  by electoral laws, propaganda, and control over the course of voting. However, clean elections have never happened
  anywhere. The legitimacy of power in any civilized country was supported by developed propaganda, and
  in the USSR it was not more powerful than, for example, in the USA or Germany. The study allows us to assume
  that until the mid-1980s the people’s confidence in Soviet power was ensured not so much by propaganda as,
  first, by achievements of the USSR, which were considered by the majority of the population to be real, significant,
  and deserving of respect; second, by faith in the socialist project; and third, by peculiarities of political culture of
  the peasantry and the proletariat inherited from pre-revolutionary times. From their perspective, the people interacted
  with authorities and participated in management. The socialist project for only a small minority represented
  only a grandiose myth, a gigantic propaganda campaign, and an adventure or scam of world-historical scale.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project no. 20-09-00353
  “The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the human dimension: an interdisciplinary study”.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Modern History of Russia;Volume 12; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: legitimacy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Soviet power
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: electoral statistics
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: sociological polls
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: electoral laws
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: propaganda
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: voting
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: electoral technologies
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: USSR
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: On the Illegitimacy of the Soviet Power
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 01_mironov_4.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/37021/1/01_mironov_4.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 1,39 MB