Bolshevik Festivals, 1917–1920: 15 (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) - Hardcover

Von Geldern, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520076907 ISBN 13: 9780520076907

Publisher: University of California Press, 1993

Synopsis

In the early years of the USSR, socialist festivals - events entailing enormous expense and the deployment of thousands of people - were inaugurated by the Bolsheviks. Avant-garde canvases decorated the streets, workers marched and elaborate mass spectacles were staged. Why, with a civil war raging and an economy in ruins, did the regime sponsor such spectacles? In this investigation of the manner in which these festivals helped to build a new political culture, James von Geldern examines the mass spectacles that captured the Bolsheviks' historical vision. Spectacle directors borrowed from a tradition that included tsarist pomp, avant-garde theatre and popular celebrations. They transformed the ideology of revolution, the author claims, into a mythologized sequence of events that provided new foundations for the Bolsheviks' claim to power.

About this title

About the Author:

James von Geldern is Assistant Professor in the Department of German and Russian at Macalester College.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0520076907
• ISBN 13: 9780520076907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 330