"Engine of Progress" or "Counter-Revolutionary Raid"? Conflicts in the Soviet Society of Western Siberia (1936-1938)

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of social conflicts in the Soviet society of Western Siberia in the second half of the 1930s. In the context of the relations problems between the Soviet government and various groups of the Soviet population, the author analyzes the significance of conflicts in the political and everyday life of Soviet citizens, the dynamics, features and ways of overcoming conflict situations. Drawing on the concept of totalitarianism and modernization on the basis of the "new social history" methodology and the theory of conflict by L. Koser, using the method of content analysis, the structure of conflicts is reconstructed, the issue of their frequency and quantity in the region in 1936–1938 is being developed. A conclusion about the conflicts using by the authorities as a mobilization tool, social engineering and repression is made; the hypothesis of the partial non-control of the party-state apparatus of spontaneous conflict situations is confirmed. The scientific results obtained in the development of the problem, in the future, can be used as practical for the analysis and prediction of conflict situations in various social models, including modern ones. The main result of the work is the formation of an idea of the conflict as a policy instrument and, at the same time, as a factor of influence on it in conditions of social tension.