Books by Olga Velikanova

This is the first study of popular opinions in Soviet society in the 1920s. These voices which made the Russian revolution characterize reactions to mobilization politics: patriotic militarizing campaigns, the tenth anniversary of the revolution and state attempts to unite the nation around a new Soviet identity.

This study of collective representations in Soviet Russia concentrates on perceptions of Lenin's image from a socio-anthropological, rather than political, view. In addition to Communist Party information, official documents, memoirs and folklore, newly opened secret reports of the Soviet political police are used for the first time. The book analyzes the development of the cult from Lenin's lifetime up to the process of "de-Leninization" in the 1990s. Much of the research concerns the perception of Lenin's death and the decision to embalm his body, the campaign called "the Lenin enrollment", renaming of Petrograd and organization of "Lenin Corners". The book also presents new material devoted to Lenin museums, along with archive documents and never-published photographs. The text is completely in Russian.