On The Heterogeneity of Social Development - Kinship Studies

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48a political structure. In the course of two centuries, thetransformational initiatives in Russia were passed over in a turntakingmanner from the Tzar to the gentry, from the gentry to themiddle-class intellectuals, and from the middle-class intellectuals tothe workers. All the vertical levels of the society had taken part in thisglobal change and ultimately the outcome of this long-time processlost all the connections with the meaning of the original impulse.In 1985 Gorbachev launched perestroika which was afundamental retreat from the political and social values of socialism.The ideas of Western capitalism and democracy has become verypopular in Russia and after 1989 formed the guidelines of Yeltzin’sstate policy. The dismantling of the iron curtain cut all the countriesof the former Soviet bloc off the “Elder Brother” and opened the way toa process known as ‘The Transition’.Social Movements in the Soviet EpochNeedless to say that the Soviet times were void of socialmovements and social movement organizations, with the informalorganizations (The Russian Women’s Committee, The MonumentProtection Society, The Army and Navy Voluntary Assistants Societyetc.), often highly politicized, comprising their only substitutions.Probably, the grains of a new social movement can be attributed to thedissident preferences which started to mushroom after the “KhruschevSpring” in the late 1960s and well into the 1980s. However their onlyweapons were apathy and the backbiting of the government. Arepresentative confession is adduced below:“Most of us, irrespectively of intelligence, education, age and position,remained infantile youngsters, egocentric and capricious. We put ourselvesin the center of the world and believed that the communists had treated usbadly but were not able to specify in what respect concretely. We hoped thatour future coming to the West will bring us a compensation, the fate will giveus its excuses and reward with shiny toys” (Klimontovich N. 1995 : 95).Paradoxically, with respect to the pre-perestroica times, one mayspeak solely of the petty Indianist movement as an epitome of newsocial movements in the Western sense of the term. The author gave adetailed description of this movement elsewhere (Dziebel G. V. 1997a;see also: Smith S. S. 1995) and here only several important aspectswill be highlighted.Indianism is the organized adherence and practicalappropriation of the cultural values of American Indians. It harksback to the early image of noble sauvage found in the intellectualoeuvre of the Enlightenment (Rousseau, Voltaire). Currently, theIndianist movement numbers about 300 people from about 30 townsin the former Soviet Union. They annually gather for a countrysiderally called Pow-Wow and then scatter into small local interest groups.
The history of the Indianist movement in Russia may be dividedinto four stages. The first stage spans the period from the end of the1960s to 1979 and is characterized by early contacts betweenindividuals and small companies of friends confined to their localities.The second stage (1980-1984) is renowned for the communal, or Pow-Wow solidarity which imbued Indianists. The years 1985-1986 may bemarked out as a third period of the Indianist community development.Total consciousness was outmoded at that time by the formation ofsmall and stable groups.Striving to reach a full fusion with nature and the Indian way oflife, people from Ukraine, Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg foundedrural settlements in the Altai Mountains and in the Crimea Peninsula.In 1986, on the wave of an extensive mass media campaign, severalIndianist activists formed the Leonard Peltier Support Group in St.Petersburg whose main concern was an assistance in setting free froman American prison one of the leaders of the American IndianMovement. Small manifestations, collecting of signatures,consultations with lawyers, meetings with the members of a likemindedgroup from the U.S. led by Leonard Peltier’s wife, petitions tothe governmental structures formed the range of the actions of thisgroup. By 1989 it exhausted the resources of action and ceased toexist.The period of 1987-1990 forms the fourth stage which wascharacterized by a 75% increase in the Indianist membership. By allmeans, this process bears connection to the sociopolitical changesinitiated in Russia at that time. More social freedom, more means ofadvertisement, more access to international contacts becameavailable. Many serious books on Indian culture and spiritualitystarted to mushroom in Russia. Russian cinema and video marketswere being filled with movies which authentically portrayed Indiancultural heritage and historical fate. In their turn, the literature andthe movies were launched by the overall tendency to reassess themodernistic attitude towards indigenous population and nature,which had emerged in the Euro-American society after World War II.The third stage can be viewed as a revival and redoubling of thecommunal solidarity of the second phase which likewise was followedby group and individual segregation and group and individualundertakings (1991-1996). In 1990 Indianists started a big publishingcampaign which gave rise to a good amount of officially recognisedjournals, among which Iktomi (published in Moscow since 1994),Tomahawk (Syktyvkar, 1990-1994), American Indian News (Moscow,1990-1993) and The First Americans (St. Petersburg, since 1996)occupy a pre-eminent place, and Russian translations of the classicalethnographic literature on North American Indians (North AmericanIndians series). About the same time, The Band of Indian Dances andSongs was formed on the basis of the St. Petersburg group withseveral invited participants from Moscow, Minsk and Ukraine. Due tosponsorship, the band succeeded in making a tour to Siberia but49
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