The creation of a new civil ritual, which could replace and replace the religious one, lasted for several decades of Soviet power. This process cannot be called systematic or progressive. Interest in ritualism subsided and then reappeared. Immediately after the adoption of the decree on the separation of church and state in 1918 - and this, as is known, was one of the first decrees of the Soviet government - registration of acts of birth, death, and marriage by religious institutions lost its legal force. Weddings, baptisms and funerals, of course, were held, but the registration of civil status acts in specially created bodies under the executive committees of the Soviets was considered legal and recognized by the new government. It cannot be said that the newly introduced civil rites at that time were subjected to some special development. What we know about the first Soviet rites is usually connected with the initiatives of Komsomol members "on the ground", with the "live creativity of the masses", as they said then. The first civil rites can hardly be called rites in the full sense of the word. It is more accurate to designate them as registration procedures. Everything that concerned the transition states in human destiny - the moment of birth, death-was reduced to formal and organizationally simple procedures. Until the time of Khrushchev, there was no serious attention to the ritual side of the life of an ordinary citizen. Only during the years of the "thaw", during the years of discussion about the "new man-the builder of communism", did the realization come that it was necessary to offer the Soviet citizen something to replace the religious holidays declared obsolete.

The object of the study is the history of the introduction of civil holidays and rituals during the "thaw" years. We are interested in socio-

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the cultural environment in which interest in ritual-making and the search for holidays that are consonant with the secularized worldview of the Soviet citizen of the second half of the XX century was revived. Dotted lines indicate the main directions of the formation of Soviet rites, we will focus mainly on the rites that, occupying the lowest place in the hierarchy of state and socio-civil rites, Soviet ethnographers called personally-family or family-household 1. First of all, we are talking about the solemn registration of a marriage, a wedding. Of course, family and household rituals do not exhaust the entire spectrum of civil rituals. A lot of interesting things remain outside the scope of the article: This included the search for" truly folk " customs, and the active promotion of various professional holidays (Builder's Day, Teacher's Day, etc.), which, surprisingly enough, was also part of the plans of atheist work and served the tasks of forming a new Soviet identity, its professional component.

The course and activities of the Khrushchev anti-religious campaign are covered in the works of M. Shkarovsky, T. Chumachenko, M. Odintsovo 2. At the turn of the 1970s and 80s, a lot of literature was published on socialist ritualism.3 In recent years, attention to such a particular subject as the introduction of a new civil rite has been paid mainly in articles based on regional material4. Not an exception to jav-

1. ritualism - the most important component of the Soviet way of life//Socialist ritualism and the formation of a new person. Kiev: Politizdat Ukrainy, 1979, p. 31.

Russian Orthodox Church under Stalin and Khrushchev. Moscow, 2005; Chumachenko T. A. Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i Russkaya pravoslavnaya tserkva v 1941-1961 [The Soviet State and the Russian Orthodox Church in 1941-1961]. 2002. N 1. pp. 14-37; Odintsovo M. I. Letters and dialogues from the times of the "Khrushchev Thaw" (Ten years from the life of Patriarch Alexy. 1955-1964)//Domestic archives. 1994. N 5. pp. 25-83.

3. See, for example: Socialist ritualism and the formation of a new person. Kiev, 1979; Feasts, Rituals, traditions, Moscow, 1979; Tultseva L. A. Sovremennye feasts and Rituals of the peoples of the USSR, Moscow, 1985.

Gvozdev S. A. 4. The last "storm of the sky". Anti-Church policy during the Khrushchev years (1958-1964)//Yaroslavl Pedagogical Bulletin. 1996. N 3; Zhidkova E. Antireligious campaign during the "thaw" in the Kuibyshev region //Neprikosnovennyi zapas. 2008. N 3; Kildeev M. V. Practice of sociological studies of religion in the USSR (1966 - 1991) and its implications for the present (on the material of the Tatar ASSR)//State, religion and Church in Russia and abroad, goyu. Tambov diocese in 1962-1974 / / History of the Tambov Diocese: documents, research, persons. Electronic resource: http://www.tambovdoc.ru/category/issledovaniya/;

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This article also applies. The topic is discussed on the example of a typical industrial center, such as the Volga city of Kuibyshev (Samara). Like many other regional centers, Kuibyshev experienced a sharp jump in population and economic growth in the post-war period. The presence in the closed city of several giant factories of union significance led to a special personnel policy and close attention to educational work with the population.

The sources were documents from the Samara archives (the Central State Archive of the Samara Region, the Samara Regional State Archive of Socio-Political History), local history literature, memoirs and periodicals. Special attention should be paid to the funds of two Commissioners (the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the Kuibyshev region). A valuable source is the journalism of M. D. Barykin, a journalist of the regional party newspaper "Volzhskaya Kommuna". For many years, Barykin wrote on anti-religious topics, and collections of his articles were regularly published in thousands of copies. A curious contemporary assessment of the journalism of those years, given in the anniversary collection of the best articles from the "Commune": from this collection it follows that Barykin allegedly "did not touch" Orthodoxy and other fundamental and traditional religions, but "turned his pen against all sorts of totalitarian sects that multiplied at a rabbit's pace"5. Such a retrospective assessment is biased and distorts the essence of the matter in accordance with modern official rhetoric. However, this controversy is beyond the scope of this article.

1920s: How it all began

It is well known that the first Soviet theorists were greatly influenced by the ideas of French enlighteners and the experience of the French Revolution. Hence the discussion of the reform of the calendar, options for a new cycle of holidays that break the old calendar grid. Hence the organization of grandiose events.

Molodov O. B. Traditsii i novatsii v obryadnosti zhizni Russkogo Severa v 1960 - 1980-e gg. [Traditions and innovations in the ritualism of the inhabitants of the Russian North in the 1960s-1980s]. Istoriya i sovremennost': Materialy konferentsii [History and Modernity], vol. 2, St. Petersburg, 2009.

5. Glitter of feathers. Favourites. 1907 - 2007. Samara: Samara Press House, 2007, p. 51.

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celebrations of the victorious proletariat with the burning of idols depicting the past and the presentation of newly invented allegorical figures symbolizing a new life 6. Komsomol Easter, Komsomol Christmas, Komsomol Yuletide, and even Komsomol Elijah's Day were held in different parts of the country7. According to the scenarios recommended by the grassroots cells, they were held in the form of torchlight processions, carnivals with mummers and acting out anti-religious scenes, burning effigies of "priests" and other evil spirits personifying the enemies of the Soviet government, that is, they resembled Yuletide in shape.

Antirozhestvo and antipaskha did not receive any development or approval from the Komsomol leadership. But the rite of greeting a new citizen, which came to replace baptism, was supported, and was called "Octobrines" or "zvezdiny". The action itself took place at gatherings of pioneer squads or at meetings in factory clubs. To the sound of the "International", the baby's parents were congratulated by their comrades, given Marxist literature, and a red cardboard star for the baby. It was called "star" baby 8. According to the memoirs of the Samara Komsomol member Mikhail Azarov-Guy, in Samara the first Octobrines were held in May 1924 in the People's House of the Pipe Factory:

On the general ruler, the leader Misha Samarin announces the unusual: "Guys! Today, before the start of the evening of amateur performances, the first factory Octobrines will be held in our People's House. We, the pioneers, will name the child, congratulate the parents and accept the newborn into our squad.

In the evening, in a crowded hall, the secretary of the party cell of the tool shop... says: "Comrades! All the factory pioneers join in the congratulations. The girl was born in May, and her parents want to name her Maya. We welcome this name and accept Maya into our pioneer group, as the smallest pupil.

6. See, for example: Lunacharsky A.V. To attract the masses to participate in the festival//A. V. Lunacharsky on mass festivals, stage shows, and circuses, Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ., 1981, pp. 122-125.

Levina N. B. 7. Encyclopedia of platitudes: Soviet everyday life: Outlines, symbols, signs. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin Publ., 2006, pp. 202-204.

8. Ibid., p. 162.

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The mother of the newborn passes the baby to Misha, and we carefully tie her tie. We descend into the hall, and Misha passes the newborn pioneer girl into the arms of the Pchelka 9 flight leader.

In the above quote, it is easy to find references to the rite of baptism - this is both the name, and the role of counselors as a kind of godparents, and the presence of such a symbol as a star, reminding Christians of the star of Bethlehem. Among the Komsomol members, recruitment and entry into the cell at first was called "bring the godson" 10. Echoes of Christian symbols can be found in Viktor Govorkov's posters " Happy children will be born under the Soviet star!"and" For a joyful, blooming childhood! For a happy, strong family!", timed to coincide with the adoption of the Constitution of 1936 and the decree banning abortion. Posters show a guiding red star above the baby, and the baby's own clothing is nothing more than a christening shirt. In fact, they tried to fill the old ceremonial with new content. And the very set of Soviet symbols and cliched phrases of propaganda texts ("the precepts of Ilyich"," the sacred commandment of youth", etc.) contain many borrowings from the religious language. Therefore, in the non-religious rites of the "thaw" times, pulled out of the coffers of the 1920s, or invented again, one can see layers of Christian, archaic, folklore, agitation-Soviet and other semantics.

The emergence of civil ritualism in the context of Khrushchev's Transformations

Interest in ritualism in the Khrushchev era arose due to the anti-religious campaign launched in 1958. If religion was once considered an enemy of industrialization, it was now declared an enemy of progress and the construction of communism. The key word of the atheistic discourse "thaw" is harm. The "Atheist Calendar" published by Politizdat has endured several reprints, and each one has debunked the" harmful " nature of religious traditions. So, the mourning accompanying traditional funeral rites is harmful. Huge damage

Yakovenko D. A. 9. The birth of the Samara pioneer//Samara regional historian: Historical and local history collection. Kuibyshev, 1990, pp. 222-223.

Galkin I. 10. At the dawn of our youth. Kuibyshev, 1969. p. 131.

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causes the Christmas holiday to the national economy due to many days of drunkenness and absenteeism. The slaughter of cattle on Eid al-Adha causes economic damage, and the feasts organized lead to revelry. The harm of the Easter holiday lies in insisting on the idea of submission to God and the harm of kissing the cross lies in unsanitary conditions 11. Science and medicine as symbols of progress are taken as allies of the atheist campaign. Conversations "On the dangers of religious rites" are included in the standard set of anti-religious lecturers.

A decisive onslaught on cults suggested measures to reduce and even eliminate religious rituals, but there were no clear instructions from party or Soviet authorities to replace it with a new civilian one until the very end of Khrushchev's time. Yes, and the very plot of civil rituals can not be called the leitmotif of the campaign. Resolutions on civil rites issued in the early 60s12 ordered "a meeting of party, Soviet, Komsomol and trade union workers, ethnographers, propagandists, and civil registry office workers to be held on this issue; local councils of Workers' deputies to provide for the construction of Palaces of Happiness in urban and urban development projects; ... establish (taking into account local peculiarities) the procedure for the official part when registering a child, issuing a passport, getting married, and other important events in the life of Soviet people ..."13. Measures were planned to review the entire system of rites accompanying acts of civil status. The first All-Union meeting-seminar on Soviet rites was held in May 1964 in Moscow, the second-in Kiev 14 years later, which indicates the low importance of this topic for the authorities.

New holidays. In general terms, by the time of Khrushchev, the festive Soviet calendar had already taken shape. The calendar grid was filled with the main red dates - national holidays (anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution).-

11. Atheist calendar. Ed. 2-E. M.: Politizdat, 1967, pp. 68-172.

12. Resolution of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the RSFSR of August 25, 1962 on the note of the Council for Religious Cults "On certain measures to distract the population from performing religious rites"; resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 203 of February 18, 1964 "On introducing new civil rites into the life of Soviet people".

13. Russkaya pravoslavnaya tserkva v sovetskoe vremya (1917-1991) - Materialy i dokumenty po istorii otnoshenii mezhdu gosudarstvennom i tserkyu [Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet Times (1917 - 1991): Materials and documents on the history of relations between the state and the Church].

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Russian Revolution, Lenin's birthday, etc.)- However, the search for new holidays begins - "national in form, socialist in content." At the initiative of the authorities, gatherings of citizens are held in villages and cities, who decide to abandon religious holidays and establish folk ones - spring, harvest, winter holidays, etc. 14 According to this logic, the holiday " Seeing Off the Russian Winter "should become an alternative to Maslenitsa, May Day -" wandering like a matchmaker "to Easter, and" The Holiday of the Russian Orthodox Church". birches " - to the Trinity. Just as in matters of ritual, the solemn registration of newborns in the Malyutki Palace will replace baptism, Komsomol wedding - wedding, housewarming-consecration of the house, and birthday-angel's day, name day. After all, it was possible to replace Christmas with a Christmas tree - a secular New Year's holiday that falls on the last week of the Christmas fast. The tree used to be an attribute of the Christmas holiday, but now it has become a Soviet children's holiday with symbolic Christmas toys in the form of a pilot, cosmonaut or corn.

In the national regions, a search was underway for national customs that could be used in Soviet rituals, clearing them of the"religious husk": "In the USSR and other socialist countries, a struggle is being waged against outdated customs, new civil rites and customs are being established, which are one of the factors in the development of socialist social relations."15 It was believed that in the conditions of a socialist society, traditional national rites were freed from religious content.16 Socialist rites, therefore, only served to remove the religious veneer from "truly popular holidays." In Muslim Tatar regions, Sabantuy became known as the national holiday of spring. Usually, Sabantuy as a regional rural holiday consisted of summing up the results of spring field work, awarding leading experts, performing amateur performances, sports games, folk songs and dances. In the arenas of stadiums and Sports Palaces, "Uro Holidays" were held annually.-

14. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 6.

Gofman A. B. 15. Custom//Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya, Moscow: Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, 1969-1978. Electronic resource: http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/bse/115422

16. See for more details: Shtyrkov S. Soviet roots of ethnic traditionalism: the case of North Ossetia//An inviolable supply, Gon. N 4 (78).

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zhaya" or "Golden Autumn". So, in 1968, the Kuibyshev Sports Palace hosted several thousand participants of the regional "Harvest Festival" - an event honoring grain growers of the region. Such events had something in common with traditional cultural holidays of the agricultural cycle. It is enough to recall the method adopted by Protestants (Volga Germans-Lutherans and Mennonites) autumn Harvest Festival, celebrating the work of farmers, when the room of the house of worship is cleaned with garlands of various fruits, vegetables and flowers, bunches of grapes.

Traditional holiday culture is closely connected with church holidays. Religious practices are literally woven into everyday life and everyday culture. Although there are almost no rural churches left, the habit of celebrating patronal feasts has not yet been eliminated in Russian villages. For example, in 1960, in one of the villages of the Tambov region, on the patronal holiday, the board of the collective farm gave livestock breeders a bonus of 50 rubles. 17 To avoid such curiosities, cultural workers were invited to spend Village Days. In cities, the "demonstration events" were Street Holidays, Yard Holidays, and later-City Day. A theatrical performance, a performance of a veteran with a car covered with kumach, a costumed procession of participants and spectators along the street (everything as Lunacharsky dreamed), ending with a mass walk in the park-this is what the thematic plan of the Street Festival in Kuibyshev looked like in 1966. The new scenarios reflected the Soviet reality, the successes and conquests of our system. These holidays, as a rule, were initiatory: Youth Day, Conscript Day, Youth Holiday, Initiation into workers. "A whole scattering of finds adorns the passage ... sending off pre-conscripts to the army, dedicating graduates to the working class. The organizers of the new rites are on the right track. They don't make copies of old, obsolete ceremonies, they experiment enthusiastically, " reported Komsomolskaya Gazeta 18. At the same time, methodological recommendations on the solemn presentation of passports to adults and the holiday were published

17. in 1962-1974 / / History of the Tambov Diocese: documents, research, faces. Electronic resource: http://www.tambovdoc.ru/category/issledovaniya/

Naganov V. 18. Happiness makes a person better//Volzhsky Komsomolets. 1972. March 5.

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the first payday that tells a young man and a girl how to spend money correctly 19. The celebration of the first Payday was recommended to be held solemnly, with congratulations from the administration, the Komsomol organization and the presentation of valuable gifts. The invitation of parents to such events emphasizes the preservation of the non-independent status of young people inherent in traditional cultures.

In the projects of the new civil rites, funerals remained the most vulnerable place. We can say that this direction has remained the least developed. If the funerals of high-status people (veterans, participants, party members) were held in the form of a rally with elements of military ceremonial, then there was a lot of uncertainty about ordinary people: what should a civil memorial service look like, what should it be, how should it be held? Communists were regularly reprimanded and worked out at meetings for their lack of awareness in performing funeral rites according to the religious canon. But instead of giving up religious symbols-without priests, without icons, without prayers, without funerals-nothing was offered. The question "How should a communist behave when religious parents die and bequeath them to be buried according to a religious rite?" was one of the ordinary questions asked at the meetings. Attempts to invent something resulted in a vague "Memorial Day for the Dead", which was held for the first time and once in Kuibyshev on June 11, 1965. A rally with laying wreaths and flowers was held at the city cemetery. The reference read: "The sale of flower seedlings and paints has been established" 20.

By decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, commissions were created at enterprises to introduce new civil holidays and rituals into the life of workers. Mostly, they were engaged in drawing up plans for labor holidays and evenings, which is not surprising, because labor is the basic category of Soviet culture. Honoring workers 'dynasties, gold and silver weddings of veterans, the solemn awarding of young workers of the category, the factory "First-grader's Day" and the workers 'gala evening" Anthem to Labor" - all these events came to us from the 1960s.

Reform of civil registry offices. Radical changes were made by the civil Registry offices, which, in fact, were responsible for citizens-

19. TSGASO. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 27. L. 2.

20. SOGAPI. F. 714. Op. 1. D. 2553. L. 17.

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Russian ritualism. At the end of 1956, the Civil Registry offices were removed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and transferred to the executive authorities, that is, to the executive committees of local councils. Employees of the registry offices took off their uniforms and shoulder straps. It was decided to move away from the procedure when marriages, deaths, and births were registered simultaneously in one room. And the registry offices themselves, according to the director's memoirs, opened in 1960 just in the wake of the transformation of the Moscow Wedding Palace No. 1, almost all were located in the basements of 21. This state of affairs no longer suited anyone. And then there was the idea of Palaces of Happiness-then they were called Wedding Palaces-where only newlyweds (and at first it was exclusively first marriages) and newborns would be registered in a solemn atmosphere. But since the Palaces of Happiness could not be opened in all localities, at first solemn registrations were held in Palaces of Culture, Houses of Pioneers, theaters, clubs and even maternity hospitals. Solemn registrations were declared a means of countering religious mores and customs.22
The first Wedding Palace in the USSR was opened not in Moscow, but in Leningrad in November 1959 in the former Grand Ducal Palace - one of the most beautiful mansions in the city. Since that time, providing the best city halls for wedding events has become a ubiquitous tradition. Moscow and Leningrad were pioneers. Further, the results of the experiment were collected, discussed and broadcast as decisions and recommendations around the country. In June 1960, "summarizing the accumulated experience", the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted a decree "On the work of civil Registry offices in the RSFSR", which introduced a solemn speech leading a wedding ceremony, exchange of rings and musical accompaniment.

In Kuibyshev in 1962, by order of the executive committee of the City Council of Workers ' Deputies, the best cultural institutions of the city "exactly on certain days turn into Palaces of Happiness"23. As was then customary, it all started with the "initiative", which was announced by Komsomol members of the Kirovsky district of the city, sending

Astashkina N. 21. The civil Registry office is a stage//Truth.<url>. Electronic edition, gon. 16 сентября, http://www.pravda.ru/society/family/16-09-2011/1091632-astashkina-o/

22. TSGASO. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 48.

23. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 32.

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a group of young people in Leningrad to study the experience of ceremonial registration of marriages. In May 1962, the bureaus of the Kuibyshev City Committee and in October of the regional Committee of the CPSU approved the initiative of the Kirov district Committee of the Komsomol. Special seminars were held for the secretaries of the city-district executive committees, club employees and civil registry office employees 24. Soon the first Palace of Happiness was opened in the city 25. During the first three days, 122 couples were registered in a solemn atmosphere. 26 In 1963, the Kuibyshev regional committees of the CPSU published a methodological guide that summarized the experience of organizing solemn marriages and registering newborns in Moscow and Leningrad, as well as their local best examples. 27 A local newsreel studio has created several short documentaries about the new rites. For example, the film magazine "Volga Region" N 13 was "advertised" in all 28 cinemas.

Not only in the regional center, but also throughout the region, Komsomol members responded vividly to the proposal to create public councils and youth commissions at civil registration offices, of which only in 1963 41 were established "for the purpose of checking and providing assistance in work." At the House of Culture "October" of the Krasnoglinsky district of Kuibyshev, the Palace of Marriage and solemn registration of births on a voluntary basis was opened. And while the duties of full-time employees were performed by 35 social activists after the end of the working day, the idea, as they say, was taken on a pencil and dressed in the template phrases of party and Komsomol reports: "It's decided: ... Create public councils attached to the civil Registry offices, directing their activities to promote the new communist way of life, combat religious prejudice, strengthen the Soviet family, and prevent frivolous marriages and unjustified divorces. " 29
As we can see, the creation of a new non-religious rite at first was in the hands of not only Komsomol functionaries, but also social activists. This is due to the fact that in the years " from-

24. Ibid. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 25.

25. Ibid. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 32.

26. SOGASPI. F. 714. Op. 1. D. 2375. L. 25.

27. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 24.

28. Ibid. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 29

29. Ibid., l. 48.

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tepeli actively supported projects for the participation of ordinary Soviet citizens in government through various public structures. The policy of de-Stalinization has revived interest in the idea of the gradual withering away of the state and the transfer of some state functions to citizens. Since the mid-1950s, such figures as vigilantes, medical officers, members of women's councils, street and house committees, friendly courts and parents ' committees have become massively familiar. The number of public personnel departments, design bureaus, and even schools of public professions grew rapidly.30 In the city of Kuibyshev alone, 840 public organizations were established by May 1961, with 6,804 members.31
Return of the wedding. The wedding as a celebration was finally rehabilitated after extensive coverage of the wedding of the idols of the era-Soviet cosmonauts V. Tereshkova and A. Nikolaev in November 1963. It was held as a national event - with the participation of top officials of the state, staged photos (for example, "SP. Korolev talks with V. V. Tereshkova on the day of her wedding"), holding the ceremony in the best Wedding Palace, sending out invitations, and the presence of a large number of guests at a government reception, when the newlyweds were sitting at the table next to the newlyweds. not my parents, but the Minister of Defense and his wife. Color photos convey the sublime atmosphere of the event: carpets, bouquets of flowers in celluloid wrappers, a snow-white bride's outfit-a veil, gloves and a dress with a full skirt in the fashion of the 1950s.

It seemed that the wedding was returning from the past as a celebration, so ridiculed in Stalin's time.32 For the advertising booklet of the Moscow Wedding Palace, the photographer captured the first couples of newlyweds in wedding dresses. Wedding rings and a white veil are back, although the minimalist fashion of the 1960s almost ignored this detail of the wedding suit. The tradition of friends returned - those who held the crown during the wedding, however, now they were called witnesses and their signatures sealed the signatures of the newlyweds as a witness-

30. Step forward, Komsomol tribe. Essays on the history of the Kuibyshev Komsomol. Kuibyshev, 1964. pp. 356-390.

31. SOGASPI. F. 714. Op. 1. D. 2395. L. 91.

Levina N. B. 32. Encyclopedia of banalities, p. 116.

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marriage certificate. The bride's white dress, which had once been her wedding dress, returned, albeit shortened. Women's magazines published patterns of wedding costumes in the "Fancy Dresses" section, offering to use textured synthetic fabrics with a "cloquet" effect called "Cosmos"for sewing.

Over time, wedding celebrations were established in urban culture everywhere, and the civil wedding ceremony itself was able to compete with the beauty of a church wedding in terms of entertainment. The old wedding, however, had clear connotations with class marriage, inequality, and bell ringing, now banned - that is, with the repeatedly branded "old regime". Back in 1956, the "Fashion Magazine" boldly announced the return of the wedding dress, not forgetting, however, along the way to dissociate from the dark past: "If the whole way of life, the influence of religion made the wedding burdened with a lot of unnecessary customs, but nowadays more and more wins the right to exist celebrating the wedding in a new way. Unlike in the past, when wedding dresses were limited to both color (only white) and a certain style (strict, tightly closed), we believe that wedding dresses should be of the most diverse nature, in accordance with the appearance and age of the bride, as well as taking into account the situation and environment."33 It is symptomatic that any departure from the sanctioned image of the past was fraught with sanctions. Here is the conclusion of the book publishing house of 1955 about the manuscript of the Kuibyshev writer and poet V. A. Alferov: "Depicting the past, he, apparently, without noticing it, poetizes it, cringes before the old days, long-obsolete religious holidays, wedding ceremonies and bell ringing. And it is characteristic of all this that V. Alferov finds both bright colors and memorable images to depict the external forms of being of the past. .. The manuscript was thoroughly discussed in the presence of the author. ... A number of new stories were excluded. " 34
The developers of the new wedding ceremony carefully studied the folk customs. But it turned out that in addition to igroo-

33. Cited in: Levina N. B., Chistikov A. N. Obyvatel ' i reformy [The philistine and reforms]. Pictures of everyday life of citizens in the years of NEP and the Khrushchev decade. SPb., 2003. p. 208.

34. SOGASPI. F. 656. Op. 120. D. 180. L. 7.

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during the "bride price", there is not much to inherit 35. Well, do not take the example of the Jewish community in the city of Kuibyshev, where they are engaged in matchmaking and even arrange a viewing in synagogue 36. Or from Tatar villages, where the custom of stealing brides, sometimes minors, does not disappear. These are feudal-Bayan customs 37. The German Mennonite wedding ceremony is also suspicious of its teetotaler traditions: "The wedding ceremony is almost the same as that of the Orthodox, only the bride is not drunk. The wedding must start at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. From 3 to 5 o'clock they pray, then go to sign, and from 6 o'clock in the evening they start "walking". Here the food is coffee, snacks, various home-made cookies, but there is no vodka. " 38 The situation is even "worse" among Pentecostals, according to the damning pamphlet "on sectarians": "The bride must wear a black dress and a white headscarf, as she is expected to mourn. The groom is wearing a dark suit. They are led out in front of the entire gathering, singing wedding psalms. Then they are blessed by their "elders" and parents, and the marriage is over. " 39
As it turned out, there is also nothing to borrow from the revolutionary past. Previously, a couple of decades ago, the marriages of the first Komsomol members were held in the mode of complete rejection of the traditions of the "old way of life" - "philistine and philistine". They were held without parents and priests, in a new friendly environment. "I remember how they (the bride and groom - E. Zh.), animated and joyful, came to the Komsomol club and reported their decision. We wanted to rock Volodya and the girls rushed to kiss the bride. The first Komsomol wedding was remembered not because it was accompanied by any rituals. No wedding ceremonies, old or new, were performed at that time, and there was not even a traditional drinking party, " recalls a Kuibyshev veteran in the late 1960s,

35. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 37.

Barykin M. 36. Under the arches of the synagogue //Volga commune. 1961. September 30.

Barykin M. 37. In the shadow of the Alka minarets //Volga commune. 1961. October 8.

38. From the information of the authorized Council for Religious Cults under the Chkalovsky regional Executive Committee V. V. Opitin about the Mennonites of Sol-Iletsk//From the history of the Orenburg Germans: Collection of documents (1817-1974). Moscow: Gothic, 2000. p. 249.

39.Cit. according to: Glushaev A. L. "Bald" Pentecostals: phenomena of religious culture of the Soviet era in the 1950s-60s//Proceedings of the conference "Religious Practices in the USSR: Survival and Resistance in Conditions of Forced Secularization" February 16-18, 2012. Electronic resource: http://www.igh.ru/

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"Then the bride and groom and all their guests would have been expelled from the party and the Komsomol." 40
Therefore, new wedding ceremonies were developed, one might say, from scratch, anew. This is why the search for "thaw" years is interesting. Years later, standard scenarios of celebrations will appear, and repertoire literature will be published. In the meantime, there was open space for amateur performances. A wedding in a new way is, of course, a "Komsomol wedding". This definition did not at all imply a non-alcoholic feast, as it became later, in the mid-1980s. First of all, it meant that the newlyweds refused to perform the rite according to religious canons. After all, it was not uncommon for young people to register a marriage in a club, and then get married in a church, as in the following case: "At the beginning of the year (1964), the Pushkin collective farm held a solemn registration of the marriage of a candidate for the CPSU, an advanced tractor driver M. F. Shunin, who was congratulated by the collective farm community, and valuable gifts were presented. However, after that Shunin and his bride went to church and got married. " 41 The practice of presenting "valuable gifts" served as an incentive to conduct a "new wedding", but sometimes even the secretaries of the Komsomol's collective farm cells did not agree to this: "Kolkhoz im. Kuibyshev (village of Mordovo Adelyakovo) had the opportunity to present a valuable gift to the newlyweds, but the groom, under the influence of religious parents, categorically refused this celebration and celebrated the wedding according to the old custom."42
What motivated the Soviet youth - "all Soviet people" who were not affected by the dark past when they turned to religion? What are the reasons for non-believers to observe religious rites? Employees of the scientific and atheistic propaganda system tried to find answers to these questions. One explanation was found in the beauty and solemnity of the lavish church sacraments, to which the civil rites clearly lost.

Identified cases of weddings were dealt with at Komsomol and party meetings. The penalties imposed could be serious, up to exclusion. It wasn't hard to find out the names of the unconscious newlyweds. Since 1962, all religious rites

Galkin I. 40. At dawn. P. 93.

41. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 49.

42. Ibid., l. 53.

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in churches, mosques, synagogues, and houses of worship, they could only be held if they had a pre-issued and paid receipt containing the data of the persons receiving the sacrament. The baptismal rite was allowed only if both parents gave their consent in writing. It was expected, and rightly so, that as a result, the number of sacraments would decrease and, as a result, the church's revenues would decrease. Data from all over the region and sometimes from neighboring regions flocked to the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, as some enterprising citizens left for other areas to perform rituals in the hope of hiding this event. The dynamics of the indicators - the growth or reduction of rites in cities and rural areas - were carefully analyzed. Lists of persons performing rites were passed on to the Soviet and party bodies for further educational work.

The second important aspect of the Komsomol wedding was the presence as guests of representatives of the Soviet public-deputies, employees of party and trade union bodies, work colleagues, veterans. Thus, the socially significant status of the event was emphasized - a new Soviet family was born, a cell of Soviet society was created. And this imposed certain moral and ethical obligations on the newlyweds. The event was taken out of the plane of private life and acquired a socio-political sound. Here is how the message about the wedding of collective farmers of those years sounded in the village club: "The newly married couple - an advanced pigsty of the district, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Uvarova Zinaida and Mikhalkov Vasily-met the village club with shining lights and festively. The newlyweds were warmly congratulated by the heads of the authorities and the public and wished them happiness in life. " 43
An important aspect of the new wedding was the festive ritual: "Young people are met by Komsomol members and escorted to the well-furnished rooms of the bride and groom. ... A marriage certificate is issued, and the groom follows the bride. A solemn procession begins from the bride's room. In front, a Komsomol member in full dress is carrying a marriage certificate in a folder bound with velvet. After him, the bride and groom, and then comrades, girlfriends, members of production teams, colleagues. On a velvet tray, they are presented with a wedding present.

43. Ibid., l. 57.

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Finally, the ceremony is accompanied by solemn music. The certificate on behalf of the district Council is presented by the deputy. Welcomes the new socialist family. Representatives of the party and Komsomol bodies congratulate the young people on their legal marriage. " 44
In 1963, in the cities of the Kuibyshev region, 35% of marriages were registered in a solemn setting.45 The number of weddings was steadily decreasing, which was seen as an obvious merit of the new civil ceremony: from 17% of all registered couples in Kuibyshev in 1957 to 4% in 1965.46 In some regions of the country, religious weddings were generally reported to be obsolete. If the Vologda Diocese recorded 232 weddings in 1960, only 14 married couples were married six years later.47 In the Arkhangelsk region in the period from 1962 to 1988. in general, no more than 100 weddings were held annually 48.

Wedding infrastructure. In order to make solemn registrations possible in the conditions of a commodity shortage - a constant companion of Soviet society-the organizers of new civil ceremonies had to make a lot of effort in coordinating the work of various departments. After all, we need scarce clothes, shoes, fresh flowers, musical accompaniment, a place for holding wedding banquets... People bring wedding rings with an opportunity from a business trip to Leningrad. In Kuibyshev, at the highest regional level - at the regional committee bureau - they hear reports from representatives of the autotrest, the restaurant trust and the flower farm on ensuring the solemn registration of employees. That is why in the report "On measures to counteract religious rituals" you can often find the phrases: "In the best atelier and consumer service factory in Chapaevsk, they fulfill an order for newlyweds" 50. Or " ... banquet-

44. Ibid. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 3-5, 24-25.

45. TSGASO. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 23.

46. SOGASPI. F. 656. Op. 110. D. 135. L. 112.

Zhamkov A. 47. History of the Vologda diocese in 1943-1991. Part 4//Portal of the Sretensky Monastery " Orthodoxy.Ru". Electronic resource: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/arhiv/31716.htm

Molodov O. B. 48. Traditsii i novatsii v obryadnosti zhizni Russkogo Severa v 1960 - 1980-e gg. [Traditions and innovations in the ritualism of the inhabitants of the Russian North in the 1960s-1980s]. Istoriya i sovremennost': Materialy konferentsii [History and Modernity], vol. 2, St. Petersburg, 2009, pp. 35-36.

49. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 32-33.

50. Ibid. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 30. L. 54.

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all rooms are well served. At the Palace of Happiness, specially designated taxis are on duty that serve newlyweds at preferential rates (no parking fee is charged) "51," ... there is a buffet, a kiosk with souvenirs is sold, flowers are sold "52. For the flower exhibition, young people perform bouquets called "Komsomol Wedding" 53, and an employee of the Orenburg tannery Nin El Belousova composes the waltz "Komsomol-wedding"54. This was also included in the list of measures to separate Soviet people from religion.

Gradually, the wedding celebration begins to acquire household infrastructure. In the 60s, artisanal cooperatives were replaced by domestic service factories. Yuvelirtorg, Tsvettorg, automobile transport Department and photo factories provide their services on the territory of Wedding Palaces. Party resolutions recommend that domestic establishments set up self-supporting bureaus "for servicing weddings and other household services." 55 The first bridal salons, Vesna, opened in Moscow in 1962. And two years later, the Soviet Trade newspaper published the story "Wedding Dress" about the tailor Luce from the bridal salon - an ordinary Soviet girl 56. Served in salons on coupons that were issued in the registry offices when applying for a desire to marry. So without waiting in line, I was able to buy bed linen, a suit, shoes and gold rings. Order a wedding dress on credit. There was even a ticket for a wedding hairstyle at the barber shop. Visitors to the Kuibyshev Glavosobunivermag, which in 1968 received the time-appropriate name" Yunost", soon became familiar with the"salon and semi-salon trade" .57
However, the city's recreational infrastructure was sorely lacking. Today it is hard to imagine that in 1956 there were only 2 cafes and 4 restos in the 760-thousandth city of Kuibyshev-

51. Ibid. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 37.

52. Ibid. F. R. 4187. Op. 1. D. 28. L. 4.

Romanyuk V. 53. " And I am 17 years old ..."//Volga commune. 1967. August 29.

Myalkin A.V. 54. Svobodnoe vremya i obshchestvennoe razvitie lichnosti [Free time and comprehensive development of personality], Moscow, 1962, p. 60.

55. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 847 of August 10, 1962 "On further improvement of public services".

Minitskaya T. 56. Wedding dress//Soviet trade. 1964. September 19.

Kandaurov S. P., Kuryatnikov V. N. 57. The heart of commercial Samara. Samara, 1995. p. 36, 41.

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rana 58. Therefore, planning solutions for new Palaces of solemn events provided for the mandatory presence of banquet halls. Naturally, a city wedding in a banquet hall was very different from a country wedding. Reports from the national collective farms left no illusions: "Weddings last for weeks ... with the obligatory invitation of the mullah and the recitation of the Qur'an " 59. In the village, feasts were held on the occasion of all the big and small events of village life, dozens of people were invited to weddings. At the Komsomol wedding, the multi-day system of traditional wedding ceremonies is reduced to a few hours of banquet. The arguments used were those of economy. It was estimated that in the budget of a modern collective farm family, festive feasts correspond to the cost of normal nutrition for one person for eight months 60. Modern newlyweds could generally refuse a feast - a traditional orgiastic rite: "Instead of lavish and crowded weddings, trade union organizations recommend tourist trips and offer vouchers" 61.

Conclusion

During the Khrushchev "thaw" years, there was an active search for new festive forms for civil rituals and the introduction of civil holidays and rituals. This process coincided with the anti-religious campaign. Religious practices, including holidays, have been severely stigmatized. An atmosphere of cultural isolation was created around the believers. Religion was clearly labeled as an enemy of progress, culture, and communist construction. For believers, this was a time of loss of the usual religious environment, practices, and reduction of rituals; a time of the onset of secularized culture-the inevitable companion of urbanization.

The accelerated modernization of Soviet society was accompanied by the destruction of peasant sociality, the attack on traditional forms of holiday leisure. It's a thing of the past

58. SOGASPI. F. 714. Op. 1. D. 2050. L. 8.

59. TSGASO. F. R. 4089. Op. 1. D. 41. L. 54.

Kerble B. 60. Russian culture. Ethnographic essays. St. Petersburg: Publishing House "European HOUSE", 2008. p. 102.

Bromley Yu. V. 61. Novaya obryadnost ' [New ritualism], p. 27.

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the holiday is sacred, the rigor of rituals is lost, the original meanings are forgotten. Life-cycle celebrations are gradually moving into the realm of leisure and entertainment, whether we are talking about a baby-birth party or a wedding banquet, where ritual dishes have long been replaced by delicacies. The processes of modernization described were not unique; they corresponded to those experienced in other societies. However, in Soviet conditions, many signs of the collapse of traditional culture were given a political meaning. According to Natalia Kozlova's apt observation, in Soviet society, the ideological system and ideological language served as an abstract intermediary in relations between people.62 The formation of the identity of the Soviet person took place in the context of the approval of the urban way of life, which implied the unification of holiday culture, the desire for a single socialist system of holidays and rituals that would erase local diversity.

Bibliography

Archive materials

Samara Regional State Archive of Socio-Political History (SO-GASPI).

F. 656 (Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR).

F. 714 (Kuibyshev City Committee of the Communist Party of the RSFSR).

Central State Archive of the Samara Region.

F. R. 4089 (Commissioner of the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR under the Kuibyshev Regional Executive Committee).

F. R. 4187 (Commissioner of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR under the Kuibyshev Regional Executive Committee).

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