Revolutionary Dreams

Posted on 25 October 2018 by Richard Stites

The revolutionary ideals of equality, communal living, proletarian morality, and technology worship, rooted in Russian utopianism, generated a range of social experiments which found expression, in the first decade of the Russian revolution, in festival, symbol, science fiction, city planning, and the arts In this study, historian Richard Stites offers a vivid portrayal of revolutionary life and the cultural factors myth, ritual, cult, and symbol that sustained it, and describes the principal forms of utopian thinking and experimental impulse Analyzing the inevitable clash between the authoritarian elements in the Bolshevik s vision and the libertarian behavior and aspirations of large segments of the population, Stites interprets the pathos of utopian fantasy as the key to the emotional force of the Bolshevik revolution which gave way in the early 1930s to bureaucratic state centralism and a theology of Stalinism. New Read Kindle ePUB Revolutionary Dreams by Richard Stites – kino-fada.fr If you are interested in Russian literature, fantastic fiction, Marxism, or Russian history, then this is a must read, one of those far ranging critical studies that intelligently sums up a vast field while still giving you plenty of other works to chase down afterwards It s divided roughly into quarters a history of utopian thought in pre revolutionary Russia, of which Marxism was only one variety a discussion of practical problems the revolutionaries faced in building a new society an ov If you are interested in Russian literature, fantastic fiction, Marxism, or Russian history, then this is a must read, one of those far ranging critical studies that intelligently sums up a vast field while still giving you plenty of other works to chase down afterwards It s divided roughly into quarters a history of utopian thought in pre revolutionary Russia, of which Marxism was only one variety a discussion of practical problems the revolutionaries faced in building a new society an overview of many now forgotten writers and social movements who explored the many possibilities open for Russian society once the tsar was overthrown and finally the gradual elimination of those possibilities as the revolution began take its fixed course by silencing dissidents and hardening into Stalinism.As we know, to ou...This is an amazing book showing how extraordinary utopian visions were put into practice just after the Russian Revolution and up to the rise of Stalin It is also very well written and the scholarship is incredible.This book examines the various forms of Utopianism pursued in Russia after the Revolution, and how they were crushed after Stalin s ascent The book covers literature, art and music, architecture and urban planning, and social arrangements Stites shows that this intellectual ferment had its roots in the Russian enlightenment of the 19th century But the underlying impulse of the Utopianism was freedom and experiment, both of which were anathema to Stalin, who desired ...This great book reveals a completely new dimension of the Russian Revolution hitherto overlooked by the countless works concerned with this event s socio economic political military aspects, which while important and interesting, give a rather flattened, one dimensional impression Stites, by contrast, reminds us that the revolution included a deep and widespread desire to transform the totality of life, clearly illustrating how this desire realized itself in numerous plans and projects to reinv This great book reveals a completely new dimension of the Russian Revolution hitherto overlooked by the countless works concerned with this event s socio economic political military aspects, which while important and interesting, give a rather flattened, one dimensional impression Stites, by contrast, reminds us that the revolution included a deep and widespread desire to transform the totality of life, clearly illustrating how this desire realized itself in numerous plans and projects to reinvent personal relations, work, technology, communal ...This book rules It inspired and got me through my 15 page research paper this past semester If you love utopian dystopian elements in history or literature this book combines both It provides evidence that a social experiment emerged from the 1917 Russian Revolution striving to create a new and perfect society utopia Stites discusses all aspect of Russian society and culture that were affected by the revolution He really shows how in depth the new Soviet Union was in regards to building fr This book rules It inspired and got me through my 15 page research paper this past semester If you love utopian dystopian elements in history or literature this book combines both It provides evidence that a social experiment emerged from the 1917 Russian Revolution striving to create a new and perfect society utopia Stites discusses all aspect of Russian society and ...A new perspective on the Russian Revolution, cataloging the veritable explosion of different Utopian practices and dreams rather than recounting events, with all of them eventually being crushed by the planned hysteria of the S...I read and reviewed this book as part of a course in Soviet history While the argument is interesting and adds significantly to the typical conversation about the revolution, the book is extremely dense and the argument is excessively complicated by minutia in many parts.C 2.8 U 4 P 3.8 A 2My takeaway from this book There was a lot of experimentation after the Russian Revolution, some of it good, some of it bad, all of it crushed by Stalin.

English
25 October 2018

Richard Stites