The "Last Times": the Perception of Time by Residents of the Russian Province in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The article presents a phenomenological interpretation of the experience of time by the inhabitants of villages and small towns in Western Ural. The study draws upon the primary sources from the Perm State Archive of Contemporary History. The author's aim is to analyze investigation files of Orthodox clergy and other “church people” and to identify mental structures related to the perception of time. The primary structure that defines the basis of time orientation was the tradition of the annual Church calendar of feasts and fasts. The secondary structure was the idea of the “three ages of life” sometimes marked by the rites of passage. A special feature of the perception of time was a clear rise of apocalyptic expectations at the turn of 1920- 1930s (“the last times are coming”).