Elena Kotelenets, professor at RUDN, became a laureate of the National Award “Best Books, Publishing Houses, Projects” for 2023

“The book is, on the one hand, a rethinking of the history of the USSR, and on the other, a summing up of the historical period. In this project, it was also important for us to guess what future awaits the memory of the USSR. As a memory of the empire with its subsequent mythologization, or as a memory of the experience of bipolar existence during the Cold War, which was associated with the Soviet Union and held the world back from disaster? Then the USSR appears as a defender of peace with a sword in its hands. And finally, there is no escaping the fact that Soviet identity was the first unique example of a rationally organized dream state. There will always be a desire to return to reflection on this”, - emphasized Elena Kotelenets.

In her section “Legal aspects of the existence and collapse of the USSR: the discussion continues,” the professor highlighted modern interpretations of the Constitutions of the USSR of 1924, 19366 and 1977, as well as the draft Constitutions of the Soviet Union of 1962 and 1990. The work examines the point of view of lawyer Shakhrai about the fork in the road between Gorbachev and the Declaration of June 12, 1991, as well as various positions in the discussion about measures that could prevent the collapse of the USSR and denounce the Belovezhskaya Accords.

Elena Kotelenets is a three-time winner of the National Award “Best Books, Publishing Houses, Projects.” In 2017, the project “Battle for Lenin” and in 2020 the publication “Victory-75: Reconstruction of the Anniversary”, published by the publishing house “AIRO-XXI”, were also awarded.