Archive

Sex and drill

Description of project

29.09.2003, 11:02

Andrey Romanov
Dept of History

The interest of the author to the topic had been attracted by an unusual file found out in the archive holdings of ?Soyuz Michaila Archangela?(The Union of Archangel Michael) containing the reports of ordinary members of this union (?tchernosotentcy?, ?Black Hundreders?), about their visits of St.-Petersburg movie theaters in 1908. These remarkable messages are permeated with feeling of anxiety for the condition of the morale of the nation, in a colorful way combining moralistic pathos with detailed descriptions of ?pornography? and indecency seen on the screen.

The ?effect of presence? is reached by translation of the visual contents of the show into the literary form. Reading and analyzing these written interpretations we come across with complex cultural phenomenon, in which various layers of consciousness and verbal discourse are entangled: the world imagined, psychological complexes, need for political mobilization, gender stereotypes and many others. Besides the ?cinema file? itself, the project involves also a lot of supplementary sources: program documents, correspondence and office-files of numerous right-wing organizations, such as ?Souz russkih Lyudey?(?The Union of the Russian People?), ?Postoyannyi sovet ob'edinennyh dvoryanskih obchestv?(?Permanent Council of the Incorporated Nobiliary Societies?) and other societies of that sort.

The project is focused on cultural and historical processes, that defines the specificity of the methods used. The specifically historical character of essay is being supported by the basic principles of general historical method, considering phenomena at different stages of their development in dialectic interrelation with various fields of cultural manufacture. According to the interdisciplinary character of the problem, the methodological apparatus of the project shares the approaches of contiguous research disciplines (cultural studies, sociology) as well as major branches of cultural history (historical anthropology, theory of cultural memory, history of experience and sociology of knowledge).

Moral decay seen by the ?Rights? in the movies and in ordinary life was portrayed as dangerous disease that had damaged all Russia and needed to be cured by urgent measures. In this situation various drilling techniques looked as wonderful solution. The idea of correction of soul by means of physical training was not new in the field of education ? the educational programs of that sort, detailed and logically designed, first appeared in Russia as early as at the end of XVIII century. However, after the Revolution of 1905 the efforts to improve the spirit by means of athletics became more active. The ancient languages, previously considered as the remedy, were [eventually] replaced by gymnastics and military training [exercises], offered as more universal means of spirit correction.

The ?Rights?, after revolutionary events 1905-07, came forward with the projects of militarization of primary and secondary school, where obsession with gymnastics and hygiene in a paradoxical way came along with demands to liven up religious education and propagation of the images of the national ?older time?.

The working hypothesis of the project is based upon the idea that by the beginning of the XX century time the right wing of ?pochvenniki?(?grounders?, the supporters of return to traditional age-old ?ground?) had made one of the major discoveries concerning mass psychology, namely, that patriotism and monarchic feelings of ordinary people were produced by and depended on skilful manipulation by means of mass media and system of education.

Despite the conservative background of those who stood for ?old values?, it would be a mistake to consider this view as protective, for it had been impossible to keep the ?old grounds? and habitual skills which by the beginning of the XX century did not exist any more. On the contrary, it was rather constructivist and technocratic approach emphasizing importance of effective and mass technology of influence on public consciousness but at the same time using traditionalist matrix of this consciousness as the core. In other words, here we encounter the effect opposite to the effect of ?historical pseudomorphosis? (O. Spengler) ? the old forms were filled with new contents blowing up these forms from inside. Based on traditional ?Russian? values, the projects of the ?Rights? in educational sphere, were only offering the more refined techniques to modernize the ?archaic? habits of everyday life and ways mental mastering [assimilation] of the world.