Cultural and educational work in the Red Army in the 1920s – June 1941: the late Soviet historiography of the problem (a brief historiographical review)

The researcher has revealed late Soviet historiography of the problem of cultural and educational work in the Workers and Peasants’ Red Army (Red Army) in the 1920s – June 1941. Such a scientific task is solved in the format of a brief historiographical review. In this case, the late Soviet historiography refers to an array of Soviet historiographical sources published in the second half of the 1980s – 1991, that is, during the so-called Gorbachev’s perestroika. The author of this brief historiographical review proceeded from the fact that in the conditional historiographical period, the chronological framework of which is indicated above, a certain number of historiographical sources devoted to the history of the Red Army in the 1920s – June 1941 appeared. They reflected, among other things, many aspects of cultural and educational work in the Red Army, which was an integral part of party-political work (moreover, with a relative degree of independence) that became, without a doubt, a unique phenomenon in Soviet military construction and construction of the Armed Forces of the young Soviet state. The authors selected, first of all, a set of historiographical sources having both direct and indirect relation to the topic of cultural and educational work in the Red Army in the 1920s – June 1941. While working with them, the peculiar historical situation that developed in the USSR during Gorbachev’s perestroika was taken into account. Then the general vector of historical development was built – the movement towards the collapse of the USSR. And this circumstance left an indelible imprint on all historiographical sources, which reflect (to one degree or another) the problem being subjected to a brief historiographical review. Such historiographical sources today require comprehension and rethinking from the standpoint of new theoretical and methodological approaches that have established themselves in modern Russian historical science.