Abstract:

This paper focuses on the visual evidences of realizing the Soviet modernity project as experienced by the Kalmyks and Tuvans in the 1930s. The Cultural Revolution being part of project aimed at radical breakdown of traditional culture and creating “new Soviet person”. I argue that analyzing the photos reveals visual signs of modernity and indicate the success of this project. The methods of visual sociology and the decolonial approach were used. The analysis revealed signs of modernity present in their bodily practices and lifeworld. These signs include, for example, European-style clothing and headdresses, and short haircuts for women. The traditional requirements codifying the position of arms and legs do not work for Kalmyks, for example, the taboo of folding arms across the chest or sitting cross-legged. The official photographs present such essential signs of modernity as Soviet symbols such as flags, banners, as well as newspapers and books denoting enlightenment and the liquidation of illiteracy. Unity with the collective was also shown, as demonstrated by the strict geometry of the group's arrangement in space. Collective photographs with clearly defined geometry of the crowd are very characteristic of early Soviet culture. Signs express the new social order and showing the forms of relations between the representatives of Soviet authorities and “colonized minorities”. The latter include the relations “propaganda – mass", “Soviet boss – subordinates”, “political leader – mass in the column”. The photographs show the signs of transforming the women status of formally “equality” to men during the Cultural Revolution. Such equality visually expresses in the lack of femininity in women's uniforms, short haircuts, strictness, orderliness and discipline in both dress and posture. Although the Kalmyks and Tuvans were presented similar, there are some differences in their visual images. Since the 18th century Kalmyks, being part of realizing the first modernity project Russia, encountered modernity unlike the Tuvans, and this was the basis for their “readiness” to accept Soviet modernity. The visual images of ethnic minorities that experienced Soviet modernity are examined for the first time from a decolonial perspective. Furthermore, studying this experience is interesting because it compares Kalmyks who lived in the Soviet state and Tuvans who had their own state at that time. This paper bases on archival materials (photos of the 1930s) from the National Archives of the Tuva Republic (Kyzyl, Russia), the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia and the National Museum of the Kalmyk Republic (Elista, Russia).