Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign in the USSR: Russian Historiography in 2010s – Early 2020s

Abstract

The article describes the recent Russian historiography (2010s – early 2020s) on the anti-cosmopolitan campaign launched by the Soviet authorities in 1949–1953. The research relied on the principles of historicism and objectivity. The authors used the methods of comparative-historical and problem-chronological research, retrospective and prospective analyses, and periodization to identify the research areas that keep attracting modern Russian historians. The latter seem to pursue the following problems and topics: the authorities vs. the Soviet intelligentsia; the Doctors’ Plot (1953); the state policy against Jewish communities; the anti-cosmopolitan campaign in provincial regions. The relationship between the authorities and the Soviet intelligentsia proved to be the most popular topic. The authors identified the main approaches that modern Russian historians applied to this topic. In addition, they compared the most recent Russian historiography with earlier research data to identify the topics that still maintain their debatable nature. Modern historians seem to focus on the anti-cosmopolitan campaign in peripheral Soviet regions. Apparently, the ethnic regions of the RSFSR interpreted the campaign in their own ways. The regional specifics of the anti-cosmopolitan campaign still need comprehensive research. Another promising direction is represented by biographical reconstructions of the repressed Soviet intelligentsia.

Keywords

• historiography
• contemporary russian researchers
• ideological propaganda campaign
• cosmopolitanism
• late stalinism
• intelligentsia
• historians
• regional studies