Soviet Icons and Semiotic ideologies: What Guides People When They Guide Icons

Abstract

The paper focuses on the semiotic ideologies that define the ways of designating old things and the practice of interacting with them in the post‑Soviet countries. Soviet icons, the most common religious artifacts of the Communist era, also passed into the category of “old things” after the collapse of the USSR. Their functions, loci of existence and symbolic status changed when the Soviet state ceased to exist. The assessments and practices of handling icons of the Soviet years are influenced by five semiotic ideologies that the authors identify and which are generally characteristic of modern Russian society: historical, antique, family, modernizing and the ideology of the “dangerous thing”. They all acquire another dimension when complemented by the idea of virtue, typical for the religious field. Each of these attitudes has developed in its own socio‑cultural environment and under the influence of various historical processes. In modern society, they are in constant interaction, sometimes entering into confrontation: they compete in the minds of “moderaters” (icon owners, prists, etc.), “shine through” each other, change depending on the communicative situation. The one that will prevail over the others will ultimately determine whether the moderator chooses the practice of preserving Soviet icons or will dispose of them. In the final part of the article, the authors analyze the influence that researchers (historians, anthropologists) can have on “moderators”, communicating with them during expeditions and voluntarily or involuntarily provoking them to changing/switching between semiotic ideolgies.