Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics

by Evgeny Dobrenko, Jesse M. Savage (Translator)

Overview

How the last years of Stalin’s rule led to the formation ofan imperial Soviet consciousness

In this nuanced historical analysis of late Stalinism organized chronologically around the main events of the period—beginning with Victory in May 1945 and concluding with the death of Stalin in March 1953—Evgeny Dobrenko analyzes key cultural texts to trace the emergence of an imperial Soviet consciousness that, he argues, still defines the political and cultural profile of modern Russia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300198478
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	584
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.44(d)

About the Author

Evgeny Dobrenko is professor of Russian studies at the University of Sheffield.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Victory over the Revolution: A Transformed War 35

2 From Metaphor to Metonymy: The Political Tropology of Historicism 87

3 Three Resolutions about Beauty: Ideological Conscientiousness as Device 127

4 Meta-Stalinism: The Dialectics of Party-Mindedness and the Party-Mindedness of Dialectics 180

5 Realästhetik: Populism Instead of Music 236

6 Gesamtwissenschaftswerk: Romantic Naturalism and Life in Its Revolutionary Development 292

7 The Power of Grammar and the Grammar of Power: Linguistic Realism 349

8 Socialist Surrealism: Representing Life in the Forms of Life Itself 392

9 Gesamtkriegswerk: Cold War Hall of Mirrors in the Ministry of Truth 449

Notes 511

Works Cited 535

Index 557

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating unorthodox reinterpretation of Russia’s 20th century”—Felix Light, The Moscow Times

Shortlisted for the 2021 Pushkin House Prize

“Late Stalinism is both unsettling and hard to ignore. Dobrenko argues that Stalin’s all-encompassing ethnic Russianness rooted deeply in everything from literature and philosophy to film, linguistics, and even biology; that it redefined national identity in the Soviet era and has now germinated anew in Putin’s Russia. This book promises to stimulate debate about the country’s past, present, and future.”—Jeffrey Brooks, Johns Hopkins University, author of The Firebird and the Fox: Russian Culture under Tsars and Bolsheviks

"Dobrenko has produced a magisterial study of Soviet culture in the 1940s, to him the most truly Stalinist period.  This is a much more sophisticated and original interpretation of the decade than we have seen to date, and it will be essential reading for all those interested in Soviet history and culture."—Katerina Clark, Yale University

 

From the Publisher