“Our Collective Farm Warrior …”: The Kuban Cossack Choir in the Policy of Integrating Cossacks into the Soviet System (Second Half of the 1930s)
The aim of the article is to analyze the integration of the Cossacks into the Soviet system in the second half of the 1930s on the example of the Kuban Cossack Choir. The sources were newspaper publications of that time and the manuscript of the memoirs of V. I. Ptushenko, stored in the State Archive of Krasnodar Krai. The study uses the historical and systemic method, which involves studying the phenomenon as an operating system in which all the blocks and elements (the social policy of the Bolsheviks, the development of the Cossack identity and culture, the mechanisms of continuity, the challenges faced by the Soviet Union, the activities of G.M. Kontsevich and Ya.M. Taranenko, the development of collective farms in the Kuban region, etc.) interact and determine its character. The historical-anthropological approach is used with its tools of social history and the history of everyday life. The dramatic process of the revival of the illustrious team, the activities of Ya.M. Taranenko and G.M. Kontsevich, the repertoire and content of the concert work, the daily life of the team are considered. The methodological work of the choir staff is characterized; its ideological integration is described. The main contradictions associated with concert activity in the context of the second half of the 1930s are analyzed. It is noted that during this period the Kuban Cossack Choir was recreated on a completely new ideological and organizational basis. A comprehensive study of the history of the choir staff in the context of the integration of the Kuban Cossacks into the Soviet system shows that, on the one hand, the Cossacks received a powerful tool to maintain their identity through constant immersion in mass culture. On the other hand, the authorities did not abandon the class principle in approaches to folk art, ruthlessly fought against “foreign elements”, influenced the formation of the repertoire, the social composition of the members of the choir, which was built in the ideological atmosphere of Soviet society. Despite the tragic losses, the tasks assigned to the choir team were successfully solved, but the reconstruction of the choir also met people’s aspirations. Despite the powerful modernizing transformations, a certain continuity was ensured in the existence of the choral and dance culture of the Kuban Cossacks, and a steady interest in Cossack traditions, costume, and values remained. The experience of constant reconciliation of samples of scenic creativity with the opinion of the bearers of traditional culture, which took place at a turning point, is still in demand today. Further research is needed in this direction.