Introducing new rituals in the russian village of the 1920s as a factor in the evolution of the relationship between peasant generations

Abstract

The article examines the changes in the ritual culture of the NEP village and their influence on the relationship between peasant generations based on archival documents and publications of the 1920s, many of which have been in special storage for a long time. The main attention is paid to the difference in the perception of the new rituals by the “children of the revolution” (their childhood and youth occurred on the first anniversary of the 15th Soviet century) and peasants of the “revolutionary turning point” (most of them were born in the 1890s). The fight against religion, which became one of the priorities in the Komsomol activities since the early 1920s, was considered by communist ideologists as a method of overcoming cultural backwardness of the masses. In this sense, the fight against the “remnants of the past” in everyday life, which included the replacement of old rituals with new ones, was proclaimed an integral part of this ideology. First, attention is drawn to innovative approaches to rituals associated with the birth of children, marriages, and funerals. The author came to the conclusion that the introduction of new rituals in the village did not lead to extreme conflicts; however, it significantly affected the complication of relationship between peasant generations.