From sacred to profane: traditions and innovations in soviet rituals

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21847/1728-9343.2013.4(124).16981

Keywords:

Soviet rites, ritual, atheism, periodization, holidays

Abstract

The article deals with process of creation Soviet rituals and its establishment. The paper includes the main stages of Soviet ritual's formation. This research shows reasons of needs of Soviet non-religious rituals system for Soviet society and USSR generally.

The paper shows how religious rituals have been transformed into atheist ones. This is a quite long process that includes few stages. Different researches have different points of view on the numbers of these stages and their meaning for the creation of new rituals.

We can to state the modern non-religious rituals have arisen in two different ways. The first way is by transformation of old religious rituals. The second is through the creation of new non-religious rituals from scratch. Regardless of the method, both kinds of rituals are used in USSR as well as in modern countries.

The nature of non-religious rituals is analyzed by comparing research by Soviet researchers, their British colleges and other investigators. Soviet researches give us information as creators of theory. This accounts for the differences of meaning of the terms of Soviet researchers and others.

The article shows the importance of non-religious rituals for any community. Mainly, atheistic rituals function to promote the cohesion of people, of different ethnic groups. We recall that in the case of the USSR, it was necessary to unite not only small groups, but also large ones, such as different peoples and nations. That's why this research is so important for modern times. 

Author Biography

Julia Slootska, G. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy

Post-graduate student of the Ethnos and Nation Philosophy Department

References

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REFERENCES

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Published

2013-09-10

How to Cite

Slootska, J. (2013). From sacred to profane: traditions and innovations in soviet rituals. Skhid, (4(124), 166–170. https://doi.org/10.21847/1728-9343.2013.4(124).16981

Issue

Section

Philosophy