Family and family memory as factors in preserving traditional religious values in the Soviet period (according to qualitative sociological research in the Republic of Mordovia)

The article, based on an analysis of qualitative research data undertaken by the author in the context of memory studies in 2020 (in-depth interviews with 35 residents of the Republic of Mordovia from among the descendants of victims of mass repression) and 2023 (in-depth interviews with 30 students of the National Research State University), reveals the social role of the institution of family and women in the preservation of traditional cultural values in the region during the period of Soviet social transformations. The results of the study allow us to characterize the family as the predominant factor in preserving traditional family and religious values during the Soviet period, and the role of women in this process as the most significant. The author highlights a number of family functions in the context of the reproduction of traditional values in an unfriendly Soviet institutional environment, including the performance of “domestic” religious rituals, the initiation of children into religion through baptism, attendance of church services, reading liturgical books, and prayer instruction; reproduction of the structure of religious communities as parishioners or informal religious leaders who have been blessed to perform rituals and sacraments; personal examples of behavior and lifestyle that demonstrate loyalty to traditional values and willingness to suffer for them; preservation in family memory of such actions and significant information about the family’s origin and the past, significant from the point of view of tradition, which was transformed into a social “frame” of family memory. The article problematizes the principle of reflexivity in the methodology of research and management of social memory about the Soviet period in the context of possible mnemonic conflicts and the construction of cultural traumas.