Research Catalog

Title

Revolution rekindled : the writers and readers of late Soviet biography / Polly Jones.

Author

Jones, Polly, 1975-

Publication

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

ix, 296 pages; 25 cm

Summary

Towards the end of the Khrushchev era, a major Soviet initiative was launched to rekindle popular enthusiasm for the revolution, which eventually gave rise to over 150 biographies and historical novels (The Fiery Revolutionaries/Plamennye revoliutsionery series), authored by many key post-Stalinist writers and published throughout late socialism until the Soviet collapse. What new meanings did revolution take on as it was reimagined by writers, including dissidents, leading historians, and popular historical novelists? How did their millions of readers engage with these highly varied texts? To what extent does this Brezhnev-era publishing phenomenon challenge the notion of late socialism as a time of 'stagnation', and how does it confirm it? 0By exploring the complex processes of writing, editing, censorship, and reading of late Soviet literature, Revolution Rekindled highlights the dynamic negotiations that continued within Soviet culture well past the apparent turning point of 1968, through to the late Gorbachev era. It also complicates the opposition between 'official' and underground post-Stalinist culture by showing how Soviet writers and readers engaged with both, as they sought answers to key questions of revolutionary history, ethics and ideology. Polly Jones reveals the enormous breadth and vitality of the 'historical turn' amongst the late Soviet population. Revolution Rekindled is the first archival, oral history, and literary study of this unique late socialist publishing experiment, from its beginnings in the early 1960s to its collapse in the early 1990s. It draws on a wide range of previously untapped archives, including those of the publisher Politizdat, of Soviet institutions in charge of propaganda, publishing, and literature, and of many individual writers. It also uses in-depth interviews with Brezhnev-era writers, editors, and publishers, and assesses the generic and stylistic innovations within the series' biographies and novels.

Subjects

• Soviet Union
• Historical fiction, Russian
• Sowjetunion
• 1917-1921
• Kollektives Gedächtnis
• Biografie
• HISTORY / Europe / Eastern
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Historical fiction, Russian > History and criticism
• Revolutionär
• Soviet Union > History > Revolution, 1917-1921 > Historiography
• Soviet Union > Biography > History and criticism
• Historiography
• Literatur
• Biographies
• Revolution (Soviet Union : 1917-1921)
• Geschichtsschreibung
• History
• Oktoberrevolution

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 19-10614

ISBN

• 0198804342
• 9780198804345
• 9780192526472 (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

1082347526

Author

Jones, Polly, 1975- author.

Title

Revolution rekindled : the writers and readers of late Soviet biography / Polly Jones.

Publisher

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1917-1921

Research Call Number

JFE 19-10614