A "former nobleman": survival in soviet realities

Abstract

The issues addressed in the article are of particular relevance for the contemporary historiography due to the absence of systematic studies on the history of the "Soviet nobility" and their adaptation to the Soviet realities. An especially interesting aspect of this topic is the transformation of values and worldview of the nobility in the conditions of the dominant communist ideology. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the nobility survival in the period of establishment of a totalitarian political regime and destruction of the traditional Russian system of values and religious traditions. The primary research method used to address the topic is the micro-historical analysis, which allowed the authors to obtain the following results: a typology of this social group was developed (involuntary or deported emigrants, open or hidden oppositionists, and those who were forced to adapt), based on characterization of beliefs, values and patterns of behaviour of individual representatives of the "former" nobility; oppressive measures used by the Soviet power against the "exploiters" were classified into several types: economic oppression, legal restrictions, ideological pressure and direct terror; and specific features of their adaptation to the Soviet realities, including its ethno-confessional aspect, were identified. The main conclusion drawn from the research is that the nobiliary culture and system of values proved extremely resistant to various challenges and threats of the Soviet epoch. Materials of this article have both theoretical and practical implications in the context of actualisation of the culture of mansions, nobiliary traditions and the cadet education in today´s Russia.

Keywords: "Soviet nobility", system of values, emigration, opposition, terror, adaptation