Abstract
After the iconoclastic destruction of statues of communist leaders in the countries of the Eastern Bloc and the former Yugoslavia following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the dissolution of the Communist system, Stalin and Tito became symbols of a former imperial power and glory. At the same time, both leaders were detached from the negative part of history and embedded into its positive pole—as heros. They are no longer real historical figures but pathos formulas representing fathers of the Russian and the transnational Yugoslav nations who contributed to the glory of their homelands. The use of their images resembles the use of images in advertising, which can be detached from their original meaning in order to evoke positve connotations. Nostalgia is thus not an approach to memories of the past or to an ideal, utopic future, but a creative means of promoting new political and social ideas in the present, an activity whose aims are in contrast with the forms used to express it.
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Notes
- 1.
In Germany, the neologism “ostalgic” has been coined out of the term “nostalgic” in order to emphasize this wide spread phenomenon in the East (Ost), in the former Communist countries in Eastern Europe.
- 2.
Stalin-Bus in St. Petersburg sorgt für Skandal. Focus. 24 October 2010. http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/geschichte-stalin-bus-in-st-petersburg-sorgt-fuer-skandal_aid:500479.html; Stalin bus begins driving through St. Petersburg. The Telegraph. 6 May 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7683577/Stalin-bus-begins-driving-through-St-Petersburg.html. See also Lutz-Auras 2013: 19ff.
- 3.
Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiiskoi Federatsii
- 4.
Busse mit Stalin-Porträt empören Menschenrechtler. In: Ria Novosti. 25 February 2013. http://de.ria.ru/zeitungen/20130225/265603435.html; “Stalin buses” to mark 70th anniversary of Battle of Stalingrad in Russia. 3 January 2013. http://rt.com/politics/stalin-bus-ww2-stalingrad-138/; Voswinkel, Johannes: Putin profitiert vom Stalin-Kult. In: Die Zeit, 2 February 2013. http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2013-02/russland-stalingrad-gedenken-stalin (Accessed 6 March 2016). See also Lutz-Auras 2013: 19ff.
- 5.
Russische Aktivisten wollen im Baltikum Busse mit Stalin-Bildern starten. In: Baltische Rundschau. 1 April 2012.
- 6.
For the festivities of the Slovenian uprising against Fascism led by the Liberation Front (Osvobodilna Fronta) see Zimmermann and Jakir 2015: 9ff.
- 7.
A short video of the commemoration is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifydoT0v3J8&feature=youtu.be.
- 8.
For the use of Aby Warburg’s pathos formulas for history and memory studies see Backer 2013.
- 9.
“Реклама—это имя вещи. Как хороший художник создает себе имя, так создает себе имя и вещь. Увидев на обложке журнала знаменитое имя, останавливаются купить. Будь та же вещь без фамилии на обложке, сотни рассеянных просто прошли бы мимо” (Mayakovsky 1959: 23.)
- 10.
http://fmail.domovanje.com/novice/060426-majcke.html (Accessed 6 March 2016). I want to thank Gregor Šergan, who made me aware of the T-shirt.
- 11.
For the affirmative and the subversive use of communist visual formulas see also Zimmermann 2015: 24ff.
- 12.
Savez komunistichke omladine Jugoslavije.
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Zimmermann, T. (2018). The Economy of Nostalgia: Communist Pathos Between Politics and Advertisement. In: Raudvere, C. (eds) Nostalgia, Loss and Creativity in South-East Europe. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71252-9_4
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