“Which party did you join?”: social movement growth in Yaroslavl Region against the background of interaction with Moscow (1988–1991)

Abstract

The article analyses the political palette of social movements in Yaroslavl Region (1988-1991), their ideology, the nature of interaction with Communist Party structures. Much attention is paid to the image of informal movements in the interpretation of the workers of the local Communist Party apparatus. The source base of the study is represented by unpublished documents of the Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History of Yaroslavl Region. An additional role in the formation of the corpus of sources for the study was made up of memoirs and oral history data (interviews). The theoretical basis of the publication is connected with the ideas of social and intellectual history, the institutional approach in historical research. The article suggests that the interaction of the region with Moscow was decisive in the rise of the social movement in Yaroslavl (1988-1991). It is concluded that the proximity of Yaroslavl to the capital contributed to a deeper demarcation of society in the Region at the ideological level. It is noted that the tense social atmosphere in the Region was intensified through the transit of fresh radical ideas from Moscow. It is emphasised that people's deputies of the Supreme Council of the USSR of the Interregional Deputy Group played an active role in the transmission of new values.