Soviet Santa
atlasobscura.com
Soviet Santa
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Re: Soviet Santa
#2As a Russian, can confirm this article is quite accurate - my family only ever celebrates New Years, it's the same as Christmas is usually in the West, and Ded Moroz is totally a thing.
Re: Soviet Santa
#3Gosh, this website is one of the worst cookie consent implementation with the oath familly...
Re: Soviet Santa
#4I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until 89...
Re: Soviet Santa
#5> Santa Claus is one of several manifestations of a particular wintertime character, probably originating with the pagan, pre-Christian Germanic and Norse god Odin.
No, 'Santa Slaus' is a distortion of st. nicholas, to which people may or may not have ascribed characteristics of previous 'wintertime characters', as attested to by the further examples of: Sinterklaas, Mikulás, which are both actually not distinct entities, but both 'St Nicholas' in their respective languages. One can make some anthropological case that these are 'manifestations', but in the case of 'Santa Klaus', the core 'identity' is still a 'nicholas figure' to which people may or may not have ascribed other attributes. Lineage and conceptual transactions are important here, esp. since this makes a less appealing narrative to spin, when one is trying to downplay the second-ranked feast day in the official state religion of an empire that viewed itself as the direct and legitimate successor of imperial christian rome.
e.g:
"It wasn’t really a festival exactly, but more of a somber religious holiday marked by fasting and long church services in Old Church Slavonic"
This is what feast days (aka 'festivals') are in orthodoxy. Followed by a 'feast'. So yes, it was a festival, "exactly".
Christmas was a major day of important significance in imperial russia, and Fr. Frost was directly promoted as a secular replacement for St. Nicholas, because soviet-style communists are militantly athiest and hostilly anti-religion. The very fact that this figure exists is a testimonial to the need to provide a 'foil' for the people to accept his removal, rather than just some casual 'cultural shift' to a different 'winter character manifestation'.
As for people 'forgetting how to celebrate christmas' during soviet times, please recall (whether positively or negatively) that Mr. Putin's mother had him baptized in secret from his communist father and he makes pilgrimages to monasteries regularly. The current high place of the church in russian society did not just originate in some ideological vaccum, many never gave up in the face of overt and militant religious hostility.
Re: Soviet Santa
#6I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until…
Could you elaborate on "Poland was occupied by Russia"?
Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. all together.
In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite, Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name, sic!).
So what does "occupation" mean in your statement?
Re: Soviet Santa
#7I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until…
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Re: Soviet Santa
#8I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until…
history is never one-sided like hand-picking of facts and interpretations tends to present. Together with the "occupation by Russia" Poland also got to annex significant parts of German territories (some of those had had no valid Polish claim, like for example the Prussia, some had been historically contested between German and Poland) - it was practically spoils of war gifted by the "Russian occupiers" to Poland (any gratitude for the gift?). The "occupation" has ended 30 years ago, and that is basically a right thing. Any plans on giving the annexed territories back?
Re: Soviet Santa
#9I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until…
Could you elaborate on "Poland was occupied by Russia"? Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. all together. In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite, Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name, sic!). So what does "occupation" mean in your statement?
Get your facts straight: USSR troops were stationed in Poland.
Wheter it was occupation or not is debatable.
Re: Soviet Santa
#10I live in Poland. Before 89 when my country was occupied by Russia, "Soviet Santa" was forced here to replace Santa Clous. It was one of many things that was made to erase Christianity and replace it with atheism and communism. Fake Christmas, fake Santa, zero beliefs. I was young back than but i felt its shallow and dark. So for me Soviet Santa is a symbol of the occupation and Russian tyrrany Poland was under until…
Could you elaborate on "Poland was occupied by Russia"? Let's put alone that in 89 it was USSR so Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, etc. all together. In any case there were no Russian troops stationed in Poland. Quite opposite, Poland and its army was one of leading members of Warsaw Pact (the name, sic!). So what does "occupation" mean in your statement?
Not OP, but see Hungary '56 and Czechoslovakia '68 for what happens to 'leading warsaw pact members' who decide they want to deviate from the soviet party line.