Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary under Stalin - Softcover

Hellbeck, Jochen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674032314 ISBN 13: 9780674032316

Verlag: Harvard University Press, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Writing a Diary Under Stalin

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Críticas

"Hellbeck's attempt to situate the Bolshevik project of self-transformation within this wider cultural and historical perspective (a dimension too often lacking in Western studies of the Soviet era) is one of the outstanding virtues of his impressive book." - Aileen Kelly, New York Review of Books "Jochen Hellbeck has opened up a new way into the private inner world of the Stalin years, a world to which former schools of Soviet history didn't pay much attention... There can't now be a cultural history of the 20th century that ignores the experience of forging the self under the conditions of Communist - and especially Stalinist - rule." - Karl Schlogel, London Review of Books "[A] fascinating book... Hellbeck's analysis of his diarists is first-rate, and his enthusiasm for his subject is infectious." - Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Nation"

Reseña del editor

Revolution on My Mind is a stunning revelation of the inner world of Stalin's Russia. We see into the minds and hearts of Soviet citizens who recorded their lives during an extraordinary period of revolutionary fervor and state terror. Writing a diary, like other creative expression, seems nearly impossible amid the fear and distrust of totalitarian rule; but as Jochen Hellbeck shows, diary-keeping was widespread, as individuals struggled to adjust to Stalin's regime. Rather than protect themselves against totalitarianism, many men and women bent their will to its demands, by striving to merge their individual identities with the collective and by battling vestiges of the old self within. We see how Stalin's subjects, from artists to intellectuals and from students to housewives, absorbed directives while endeavoring to fulfill the mandate of the Soviet revolution--re-creation of the self as a builder of the socialist society. Thanks to a newly discovered trove of diaries, we are brought face to face with individual life stories--gripping and unforgettably poignant. The diarists' efforts defy our liberal imaginations and our ideals of autonomy and private fulfillment. These Soviet citizens dreamed differently. They coveted a morally and aesthetically superior form of life, and were eager to inscribe themselves into the unfolding revolution. Revolution on My Mind is a brilliant exploration of the forging of the revolutionary self, a study without precedent that speaks to the evolution of the individual in mass movements of our own time.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harvard University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0674032314
• ISBN 13: 9780674032316
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 448