The "Memoirs War": Fear Motifs in the Narratives of the Soviet Past by Two Medievalist-Adversaries and (Non-) Soviet Subjectivities (Evgenia Gutnova and Aron Gurevich)

This article examines the role of fear motifs in the construction of author's subjectivity in the "fighting" memoirs (published in 2001-2002) of two Soviet medievalists: the leader of the so called non-official medieval studies, A. Gurevitch, and a representative of the Soviet historical establishment, E. Gutnova. Whereas both authors see fear as the product of the repressive Soviet regime, engendering silence and slavery, Gutnova uses the discourse of fear to victimize and justify the "hers" collectively suffering under the regime's pressure, while Gurevitch contrasts the "his" as active agency to "silent majority". Links with the romantic ideals of the non-official Soviet humanities, the structure of the dissidents' memoirs, and general vision of history are discussed.