Political Symbols in Russian History

Political Symbols in Russian History

Author: Lee Trepanier

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0739117890

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Political Symbols in Russian History is one of the few works that presents an analytical and comprehensive account of Russian history and politics between the years of 988 to 2005. From Kievan Rus to Putin's Russia, this book traces the development, evolution, and impact that political symbols have had on Russian society. By using Eric Vogelin's 'new science of politics' as the human search for order and justice, Dr. Lee Trepanier provides a fresh and unique approach to the studies of political culture and civil society. For those interested in Russian politics and intellectual history, Political Symbols offers the most up-to-date scholarship on such political symbols and social institutions like the Russian Orthodox Church and State. This book presents an innovative approach to understanding symbols in the search for order and justice in Russian history.


Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics

Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics

Author: Graeme Gill

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-03-24

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1139501224

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Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics analyses the way in which Soviet symbolism and ritual changed from the regime's birth in 1917 to its fall in 1991. Graeme Gill focuses on the symbolism in party policy and leaders' speeches, artwork and political posters, and urban redevelopment, and on ritual in the political system. He shows how this symbolism and ritual were worked into a dominant metanarrative which underpinned Soviet political development. Gill also shows how, in each of these spheres, the images changed both over the life of the regime and during particular stages: the Leninist era metanarrative differed from that of the Stalin period, which differed from that of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods, which was, in turn, changed significantly under Gorbachev. In charting this development, the book lays bare the dynamics of the Soviet regime and a major reason for its fall.


Mythmaking in the New Russia

Mythmaking in the New Russia

Author: Kathleen E. Smith

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780801439636

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Kathleen E. Smith examines the use of collective memories in Russian politics during the Yeltsin years, surveying the various issues that became battlegrounds for contending notions of what it means to be Russian.


Interpreting the Russian Revolution

Interpreting the Russian Revolution

Author: Orlando Figes

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780300081060

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The authors examine the diverse ways that language and other symbols--including flags and emblems, public rituals, songs, and codes of dress--were used to identify competing sides and to create new meanings in Russia's political struggles of 1917. 32 illustrations.


Language and Metaphors of the Russian Revolution

Language and Metaphors of the Russian Revolution

Author: Lonny Harrison

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-12-16

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1498597998

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Language and Metaphors of the Russian Revolution: Sow the Wind, Reap the Storm is a panoramic history of the Russian intelligentsia and an analysis of the language and ideals of the Russian Revolution, from its inception over the long nineteenth century through fruition in early Soviet society. This volume examines metaphors for revolution in the storm, flood, and harvest imagery ubiquitous in Russian literary works. At the same time, it considers the struggle to own the narrative of modernity, including Bolshevik weaponization of language and cultural policy that supported the use of terror and social purging. This uniquely cross-disciplinary study conducts a close reading of texts that use storm, flood, and agricultural metaphors in diverse ways to represent revolution, whether in anticipation and celebration of its ideals or in resistance to the same. A spotlight is given to the lives and works of authors who responded to Soviet authoritarianism by reclaiming the narrative of revolution in the name of personal freedom and restoration of humanist values. Hinging on the clashes of culture wars and class wars and residing at the intersection of ideas at the very core of the fight for modernity, this book provides a critical reading of authoritarian discourse and investigates rare examples of the counter narratives that thrived in spite of their suppression.


The French Revolutionary Tradition in Russian and Soviet Politics, Political Thought, and Culture

The French Revolutionary Tradition in Russian and Soviet Politics, Political Thought, and Culture

Author: Jay Bergman

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 0198842708

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The Bolsheviks sought legitimacy and inspiration in historic revolutionary traditions, and Jay Bergman argues that they saw the revolutions in France in 1789, 1830, 1848, and 1871 as supplying practically everything Marxism lacked, including guidance in constructing socialism and communism, and useful fodder for political and personal polemics.


Symbolism and Regime Change in Russia

Symbolism and Regime Change in Russia

Author: Graeme J. Gill

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-01-17

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1107031397

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Asks why regime change in Russia has not been accompanied by a coherent new political symbolism.


A Companion to the Russian Revolution

A Companion to the Russian Revolution

Author: Daniel Orlovsky

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-10-19

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 1118620895

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A compendium of original essays and contemporary viewpoints on the 1917 Revolution The Russian revolution of 1917 reverberated throughout an empire that covered one-sixth of the world. It altered the geo-political landscape of not only Eurasia, but of the entire globe. The impact of this immense event is still felt in the present day. The historiography of the last two decades has challenged conceptions of the 1917 revolution as a monolithic entity— the causes and meanings of revolution are many, as is reflected in contemporary scholarship on the subject. A Companion to the Russian Revolution offers more than thirty original essays, written by a team of respected scholars and historians of 20th century Russian history. Presenting a wide range of contemporary perspectives, the Companion discusses topics including the dynamics of violence in war and revolution, Russian political parties, the transformation of the Orthodox church, Bolshevism, Liberalism, and more. Although primarily focused on 1917 itself, and the singular Revolutionary experience in that year, this book also explores time-periods such as the First Russian Revolution, early Soviet government, the Civil War period, and even into the 1920’s. Presents a wide range of original essays that discuss Brings together in-depth coverage of political history, party history, cultural history, and new social approaches Explores the long-range causes, influence on early Soviet culture, and global after-life of the Russian Revolution Offers broadly-conceived, contemporary views of the revolution largely based on the author’s original research Links Russian revolutions to Russian Civil Wars as concepts A Companion to the Russian Revolution is an important addition to modern scholarship on the subject, and a valuable resource for those interested in Russian, Late Imperial, or Soviet history as well as anyone interested in Revolution as a global phenomenon.


Iconography of Power

Iconography of Power

Author: Victoria E. Bonnell

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1998-02-05

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9780520924062

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Masters at visual propaganda, the Bolsheviks produced thousands of vivid and compelling posters after they seized power in October 1917. Intended for a semi-literate population that was accustomed to the rich visual legacy of the Russian autocracy and the Orthodox Church, political posters came to occupy a central place in the regime's effort to imprint itself on the hearts and minds of the people and to remold them into the new Soviet women and men. In this first sociological study of Soviet political posters, Victoria Bonnell analyzes the shifts that took place in the images, messages, styles, and functions of political art from 1917 to 1953. Everyone who lived in Russia after the October revolution had some familiarity with stock images of the male worker, the great communist leaders, the collective farm woman, the capitalist, and others. These were the new icons' standardized images that depicted Bolshevik heroes and their adversaries in accordance with a fixed pattern. Like other "invented traditions" of the modern age, iconographic images in propaganda art were relentlessly repeated, bringing together Bolshevik ideology and traditional mythologies of pre-Revolutionary Russia. Symbols and emblems featured in Soviet posters of the Civil War and the 1920s gave visual meaning to the Bolshevik worldview dominated by the concept of class. Beginning in the 1930s, visual propaganda became more prescriptive, providing models for the appearance, demeanor, and conduct of the new social types, both positive and negative. Political art also conveyed important messages about the sacred center of the regime which evolved during the 1930s from the celebration of the heroic proletariat to the deification of Stalin. Treating propaganda images as part of a particular visual language, Bonnell shows how people "read" them—relying on their habits of seeing and interpreting folk, religious, commercial, and political art (both before and after 1917) as well as the fine art traditions of Russia and the West. Drawing on monumental sculpture and holiday displays as well as posters, the study traces the way Soviet propaganda art shaped the mentality of the Russian people (the legacy is present even today) and was itself shaped by popular attitudes and assumptions. Iconography of Power includes posters dating from the final decades of the old regime to the death of Stalin, located by the author in Russian, American, and English libraries and archives. One hundred exceptionally striking posters are reproduced in the book, many of them never before published. Bonnell places these posters in a historical context and provides a provocative account of the evolution of the visual discourse on power in Soviet Russia.


Money of the Russian Revolution

Money of the Russian Revolution

Author: Mikhail V. Khodjakov

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-11-19

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1443871478

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During the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War, more than twenty thousand kinds of banknotes were used throughout the vast expanse of the former Russian Empire. At that time, money was issued not only by the official authorities, such as the Imperial Government, the Provisional Government, and, later, the Bolshevik Government, but also by Generals Denikin, Wrangel, and Yudenich, Admiral Kolchak, Atamans Semyonov and Petliura, Hetman Skoropadskyi, and many other great and small rulers of Russia. Russian money was manufactured in Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. To some degree, money served as a manifesto of the issuing government, reflected in the various symbols depicted on the banknotes. Using new archival data, this book expands and, in a number of cases, revises the well-established view of the daily life of people during the Revolution, and dispels the settled myth about how the natural economy prevailed in the years of the Russian Civil War. The book presents unique illustrations taken from the author’s private collection: the “Romanov” banknotes; postage stamps used as currency; “Duma” money; and 1917 banknotes known as “kerenkies”, “morzhovkies”, “tchaikovkies”, “Northern rubles”, “krylatkies”, “rodzyankies”, “the Don rubles”, and “kolchakovkies”. Some of these banknote designs were made by well-known Russian artists, such as Ivan Bilibin, Sergey Chekhonin, and Georgy Narbut. The book is addressed to historians, economists, and all readers interested in Russian history and economy.