Potemkin village (Russia) - Revision history

Editor2018 at 16:09, 17 May 2019

2019-05-17T16:09:34Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:09, 17 May 2019
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	{{infobox		{{infobox
	\| nameofpractice = Potemkin ~~village/Potemkinskaia derevnia~~		\| nameofpractice =Potemkin villages
	\| location = Russia		\| flagemoji =🇷🇺
	\| imagemap = Russia map.png		\| definition =Facade built to deceive (lit or fig.) to hide an undesirable fact or condition
	\| ~~imageflag~~ = Russia ~~flag.png~~		\| location =Russia
	\| authorofpiece = Jessica T. Pisano		\| imagemap =Russia map.png
	\| authorinstitution = New School for Social Research, New York, USA		\| clusters =
	}}		[[:Category:Market\|Market]] – [[:Category: Functional ambivalence\| Functional ambivalence]] – [[:Category: Gaming the system\| Gaming the system]] – [[:Category: Camouflage\| Camouflage]] – [[:Category: Creating facades\| Creating facades]]
			\| categories =
			[[:Category:Russia\|Russia]] – [[:Category: FSU\| FSU]] – [[:Category: Euphemism\| Euphemism]] – [[:Category: Food\| Food]] – [[:Category: Public service\| Public service]]
			\| authorofpiece =Jessica T. Pisano
			\| authorinstitution =New School for Social Research, New York, USA
			\| authorwebsite =[http://jessicapisano.net/ Personal website]}}
			<big>'''By Jessica T. Pisano, New School for Social Research, New York, USA'''</big>
			[[Category:Market]]
			[[Category: Functional ambivalence]]
			[[Category: Gaming the system]]
			[[Category: Camouflage]]
			[[Category: Creating facades]]
			[[Category:Russia]]
			[[Category: FSU]]
			[[Category: Euphemism]]
			[[Category: Food]]
			[[Category: Public service]]
			[[Category:Entry]]
			[[Category: Volume 2]]
			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|-
			\|style="font-size:1.1em;"\|A Potemkin village is a simulation: a facade meant to fool the viewer into thinking that he or she is seeing the real thing. The concept is used in the Russian-speaking world as well as in English and in other languages. Potemkin village belongs to a genus of phenomena that proliferate in post-Soviet space. Those phenomena describe gaps between external appearances and underlying realities. In the Russian language, the genus includes species such as ''pokazukha'' (window-dressing, see Pisano 2014<ref>Pisano, J. 2014. “Pokazukha and Cardiologist Khrenov: Soviet legacies, legacy theatre, and usable pasts,” in Mark Beissinger and Stephen Kotkin, (eds.), Historical Legacies i Communist and Postcommunist Eurasia: State Executives, Property, Law, and Geopolitics since the 1970s. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>, Radio Maiak 2010<ref>Radio Maiak, 2010. ‘Pokazukha v Rossii,’ 17 December, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jygrov-aYmA.</ref>), ''imitatsiia'' (mimicry—a loan word from English, in contrast to the Russian ''podrazhenie'', or imitation), ''feik'' (doctored news images or reports), as well as a rich vocabulary describing various subspecies of shell companies: ''roga i kopyta''<ref>Ilf, I. and Petrov, E. 1998 (1931). Zolotoi telenok. Moscow: LOKID.</ref>, ''firma-odnodnevka'', ''fonar’, pomoika, ezhik'', and many others.
			\|}

	~~'''''Original text: Jessica T. Pisano, New School for Social Research, New York, USA'''''~~

	~~<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">~~
	~~A Potemkin village is a simulation: a facade meant to fool the viewer into thinking that he or~~
	~~she is seeing the real thing. The concept is used in the Russian-speaking world as well as in~~
	~~English and in other languages. Potemkin village belongs to a genus of phenomena that~~
	~~proliferate in post-Soviet space. Those phenomena describe gaps between external~~
	~~appearances and underlying realities. In the Russian language, the genus includes species~~
	~~such as ''pokazukha'' (window-dressing, see Pisano 2014<ref>Pisano, J. 2014. “Pokazukha and Cardiologist Khrenov: Soviet legacies, legacy theatre, and~~
	~~usable pasts,” in Mark Beissinger and Stephen Kotkin, (eds.), Historical Legacies in~~
	~~Communist and Postcommunist Eurasia: State Executives, Property, Law, and Geopolitics~~
	~~since the 1970s. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>, Radio Maiak 2010<ref>Radio Maiak, 2010. ‘Pokazukha v Rossii,’ 17 December,~~
	~~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jygrov-aYmA.</ref>), ''imitatsiia''~~
	~~(mimicry—a loan word from English, in contrast to the Russian ''podrazhenie'', or imitation),~~
	~~''feik'' (doctored news images or reports), as well as a rich vocabulary describing various~~
	~~subspecies of shell companies: ''roga i kopyta''<ref>Ilf, I. and Petrov, E. 1998 (1931). Zolotoi telenok. Moscow: LOKID.</ref>, ''firma-odnodnevka'',~~
	~~''fonar’, pomoika, ezhik'', and many others.~~

	~~<div class="mw-collapsible-content">~~
	Potemkin villages bear a family resemblance to the phantasms of capitalist		Potemkin villages bear a family resemblance to the phantasms of capitalist
	reproduction that Baudrillard<ref>Baudrillard, 1985. Simulacra et Simulation. Editions Galilee.</ref> described as simulacra<ref>Epstein, M. 1995. ‘The Origins and Meaning of Russian Postmodernism,’ in After the		reproduction that Baudrillard<ref>Baudrillard, 1985. Simulacra et Simulation. Editions Galilee.</ref> described as simulacra<ref>Epstein, M. 1995. ‘The Origins and Meaning of Russian Postmodernism,’ in After the
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	movements<ref>Walker, E.T. 2014. Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy.		movements<ref>Walker, E.T. 2014. Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy.
	New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>.		New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>.
	~~</div>~~
	~~</div>~~
	~~==Notes==~~
	~~<references />~~
	~~'''Further reading:'''<br>~~
	~~Florenskii, 1991 (1922). Mnimosti v geometrii. Moscow: Lazur’<br>~~

	~~[[Category:Entry]]~~		==References==
	~~[[Category:Russia]]~~

Admin at 13:00, 3 July 2018

2018-07-03T13:00:00Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:00, 3 July 2018
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	'''Further reading:'''<br>		'''Further reading:'''<br>
	Florenskii, 1991 (1922). Mnimosti v geometrii. Moscow: Lazur’<br>		Florenskii, 1991 (1922). Mnimosti v geometrii. Moscow: Lazur’<br>

			[[Category:Entry]]
			[[Category:Russia]]

Admin: Created page with "{{infobox | nameofpractice = Potemkin village/Potemkinskaia derevnia | location = Russia | imagemap = Russia map.png | imageflag = Russia flag.png | authorofpiece =..."

2018-05-29T13:46:47Z

Created page with "{{infobox | nameofpractice = Potemkin village/Potemkinskaia derevnia | location = Russia | imagemap = Russia map.png | imageflag = Russia flag.png | authorofpiece =..."

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{{infobox
| nameofpractice = Potemkin village/Potemkinskaia derevnia
| location = Russia
| imagemap = Russia map.png
| imageflag = Russia flag.png
| authorofpiece = Jessica T. Pisano
| authorinstitution = New School for Social Research, New York, USA
}}

'''''Original text: Jessica T. Pisano, New School for Social Research, New York, USA'''''

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
A Potemkin village is a simulation: a facade meant to fool the viewer into thinking that he or
she is seeing the real thing. The concept is used in the Russian-speaking world as well as in
English and in other languages. Potemkin village belongs to a genus of phenomena that
proliferate in post-Soviet space. Those phenomena describe gaps between external
appearances and underlying realities. In the Russian language, the genus includes species
such as ''pokazukha'' (window-dressing, see Pisano 2014<ref>Pisano, J. 2014. “Pokazukha and Cardiologist Khrenov: Soviet legacies, legacy theatre, and
usable pasts,” in Mark Beissinger and Stephen Kotkin, (eds.), Historical Legacies in
Communist and Postcommunist Eurasia: State Executives, Property, Law, and Geopolitics
since the 1970s. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>, Radio Maiak 2010<ref>Radio Maiak, 2010. ‘Pokazukha v Rossii,’ 17 December,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jygrov-aYmA.</ref>), ''imitatsiia''
(mimicry—a loan word from English, in contrast to the Russian ''podrazhenie'', or imitation),
''feik'' (doctored news images or reports), as well as a rich vocabulary describing various
subspecies of shell companies: ''roga i kopyta''<ref>Ilf, I. and Petrov, E. 1998 (1931). Zolotoi telenok. Moscow: LOKID.</ref>, ''firma-odnodnevka'',
''fonar’, pomoika, ezhik'', and many others.

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Potemkin villages bear a family resemblance to the phantasms of capitalist
reproduction that Baudrillard<ref>Baudrillard, 1985. Simulacra et Simulation. Editions Galilee.</ref> described as simulacra<ref>Epstein, M. 1995. ‘The Origins and Meaning of Russian Postmodernism,’ in After the
Future: The Paradoxes of Postmodernism and Contemporary Russian Culture. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press, 188-212.</ref>, but they arguably
express a different ontological orientation. Some understand Potemkin villages as imaginaries
rather than illusions<ref>Seifrid, T. 2001. ‘‘Illusion’ and its workings in modern Russian culture’, The Slavic and East
European Journal, 45:2.</ref><ref>Clowes, E. 1995. ‘Simulacrum as S(t)imulation? Postmodernist Theory and Russian Cultural
Criticism’, in The Slavic and East European Journal, 39 (3): 333-343.</ref>. In such interpretations, Potemkin villages
are aspirational, rather than deceptive, and they are only meaningful insofar as their referent
exists somewhere in the world. In Russia, Seifrid writes, the ‘prolific construction of
simulacra’ is ‘not a sham culture suspended over reality’s absence, but one energetically
cycling, responding to, and transforming into hard cultural currency the fabricated signs that
it appropriates, magpie-like, from abroad—sustained by a hope in the referent’s eventual
advent’<ref>Seifrid, T. 2001. ‘‘Illusion’ and its workings in modern Russian culture’, The Slavic and East
European Journal, 45:2, 214.</ref>.

The original Potemkin villages were said to be eighteenth century facades constructed
by Prince Potemkin to impress Empress Catherine II as she traveled in Crimea following its
annexation from the Ottoman Empire. Historians now agree that this legend is likely an
exaggeration<ref>Panchenko, A.M., 1999. ‘‘Potemkinskie derevni’ kak kul’turnyi mif,’ in Russkaia istoriia I
kul’tura: Raboty raznykh let. Saint Petersburg: 462-475.</ref>. But debates about the veracity of the original story
crystallise frictions embodied in the concept: Where should the lines be drawn between
artifice and embellishment, and between embellishment and mere decoration? Wherein lies
the distinction between deception and aspiration? And where artifice is persuasive, how do
we know what it is that we are seeing? These questions have become particularly salient
during the current period, in which Potemkin villages and related concepts are frequently
used to describe political institutions, including electoral practices and elite-led and elite-
captured social movements<ref>Pisano (Allina-Pisano), J. 2010. “Legitimizing facades: Civil Society in post-Orange
Ukraine” in Paul D’Anieri, (ed.), Orange Revolution and Aftermath: Mobilization, Apathy,
and the State in Ukraine. Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University
Press: 229-253.</ref><ref>Radnitz, S. 2012. Weapons of the Wealthy: Predatory Regimes and Elite-Led Protests in
Central Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.</ref><ref>Wilson, A. 2005. Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. New Haven:
Yale University Press.</ref><ref>Gabowitsch, M. 2015. ‘Etnografiia Dnia Pobedy,’ Neprikosnovennyi zapas, 3:101.</ref>.
Increasingly, politicians and others across the political spectrum refer to Potemkin villages, or
some variation on the concept, to accuse their opponents of inauthenticity<ref>Grigor’ev, M. 2007. Fake-Struktury: Prizraki rossiiskoi politiki. Moscow: Evropa.</ref><ref>Orban, V. 2014. Speech at Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő), 26 July. The Budapest Beacon 1-14
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHxg3Aoir6w.</ref>.

Potemkin villages appear in numerous guises in nineteenth and twentieth century
literature, as well as in Soviet-era political economy. In the nineteenth century literary and
political imagination, façade and theatrical tropes surface most famously in Gogol’s Revisor
(1836) and with greatest present-day resonance in Mertvye dushi (1842), in which Gogol’s
protagonist Chichikov schemes to raise money by purchasing recently deceased serfs (upon
whose head landowners continued to owe taxes) and using their names as collateral. Writing
in reaction to liberalisation later in the century, Aksakov<ref>Aksakov, I. S. 1863. ‘“Vse sushchestvuet u nas—budto by,” Den’, 48, 30 November.</ref> bemoaned the ubiquity of
mere appearances. Among the most infamous statements about Potemkin villages are the
observations of the Marquis de Custine, who described Russia as an ‘empire of catalogues’<ref>Marquis de Custine, La Russie en 1893.</ref>.

Soviet-era Potemkin villages included performances of economic development:
presentations of model farms, factories, schools, and other institutions were staples of visits
by delegations from Moscow and abroad. In 1988, Mikhail Zadornov published a widely read
satirical essay about the practice<ref>Zadornov, M. 1988. ‘Blagodarnost’ [Otkrytoe pis’mo general’nomu sekretariu],’ Teatr
3:189-90.</ref>. Post-Soviet literature likewise contains numerous
references to a variety of types of Potemkin village. For example, in the world of Viktor
Pelevin’s Omon Ra<ref>Pelevin, V. 1992. Omon Ra. Moscow: Tekst.</ref>, humans dress as game to entertain hunting parties of Party elite
and millions of political prisoners simultaneously jump up and down in order to simulate tests
of nuclear warheads.

The concept plays a central role in the eponymously titled The Post-Soviet Potemkin
Village<ref>Pisano (Allina-Pisano), J. 2008. The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village: Politics and Property
Rights in the Black Earth. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>, which analyses the political economy of villages along the present day
Russia-Ukraine border. In it, Jessica Pisano drew on long-term field research in rural
communities to show how post-Soviet privatisation of land in Russia and Ukraine produced
widespread rural dispossession and consolidation of state and corporate control, all concealed
by a paper record of rural ownership. In contrast to many other examples, Potemkin villages
in the post-Soviet countryside were not entirely intentional charades. Instead, they were
produced by a confluence of economic policy choices at the national level and local actors’
responses to those choices.

Beyond the Russian-speaking world, variations on Potemkin villages can be found in
most contemporary polities and in many vernaculars<ref>Debord, G. 1992 (1967), La Société du Spectacle. Paris: Gallimard.</ref><ref>Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books.</ref>.
These ‘experience near concepts’<ref>Geertz, C. 1985. ‘From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological
Understanding’ in Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretative Anthropology. Basic
Books.</ref> most often are used to describe political
phenomena. In Lusophone Africa and Brazil, people speak of laws that are ‘''só para inglês
ver''’ (‘just for the English to see’), originally in reference to nineteenth-century pro-forma
Portuguese efforts to stamp out the slave trade in the face of British criticism<ref>Ashcroft, P. 2015. ‘Two Centuries of Conning the ‘British’: The History of the Expression ‘E
Para Inglês Ver,’ or ‘It’s for the English to See’ and Its Modern Offshoots,’ RioonWatch.org,
May 28, http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=21847.</ref><ref>Penvenne, J.M. 2000. Review of Margaret Hall and Tom Young, Confronting Leviathan:
Mozambique since Independence. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997, in International
Journal of African Historical Studies 33:1.</ref>. In Francophone Africa, Emmanuel Terray writes of la véranda and le
climatiseur<ref>Terray, E. 1986. ‘Le Climatiseur et la Véranda,’ in Afrique Plurielle, Afrique Actuelle.
Homage à Georges Balandier, Paris: Karthala.</ref>. Journalism and scholarly research in and about Latin America has long referred
to the ‘democratic façade’ (''fachada democrática''). And in politics in the United States,
‘Astroturf’ lobbyists pay PR firms to create campaigns that resemble grassroots political
movements<ref>Walker, E.T. 2014. Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy.
New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>.
</div>
</div>
==Notes==
<references />
'''Further reading:'''<br>
Florenskii, 1991 (1922). Mnimosti v geometrii. Moscow: Lazur’<br>