Explores Russia's art and culture in relation to the country's political processes
THE FACE OF RUSSIA: Anguish, Aspiration, & AchievementTHE FACE OF RUSSIA: Anguish, Aspiration, and Achievement in Russian Culture By James Billington
Available: August 10, 1999 Publication Date: September 10, 1999 ISBN: 1-57500-089-X, 272 pages with color insert, 6" x 9" Trade paperback.
U.S. LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS AND RENOWNED RUSSIA EXPERT EXPLORES NEW PATTERNS IN THE CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF RUSSIA
THE FACE OF RUSSIA, newly released in paperback from TV Books, examines Russia’s struggle toward democracy through a review of its art and culture. The book explains why Russia’s political evolution and the collapse of Communism were more clearly predicted by humanities students than by economists and political scientists immersed in hard data and statistics.
THE FACE OF RUSSIA identifies a recurring pattern in the Russian creative process that provides insight into the origin and potential resolution of Russia’s contemporary problems. First, the Russians suddenly take over a new form of creative enterprise from a more advanced foreign civilization they previously reviled. Then the Russians produce stunningly original works, essentially re-creating the art form. Finally, having lifted the new art form to a higher level, the Russian themselves cast it down, leaving behind only fragments for future generations.
This recurring pattern raises intriguing questions about Russia today. Having borrowed the democratic model of their former American adversary, will they be able to create a distinctive Russian variant that can endure? Or will they end up destroying their own fledgling constitutional government and returning to their long tradition of authoritarianism? THE FACE OF RUSSIA addresses these questions. "Great art—original art, particularly art that breaks out of the box—tells us a lot about the psychology and the problems of the people," Dr. Billington, the author, stated in an interview with The Washington Post. "Art tends to be the hypersensitive nerve endings of a civilization." Divided into five areas, and with 24 pages of color illustrations, THE FACE OF RUSSIA covers 800 years of Russian painting, architecture, literature, music and cinema. The book introduces readers to Russia’s new vehicles for expressing creative aspirations through the ages, as well as the enduring Russian quest to find salvation and entertainment in art.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. James Billington was named U.S. Librarian of Congress in 1987. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford and former Professor of Modern History at Harvard and Princeton Universities, Dr. Billington is the author of the classic The Icon and the Axe and Russia Transformed: Breakthrough to Hope, an eyewitness account of the failed Communist coup in 1991 and the emergence of Russia as a democratic nation. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on Russia and a policy advisor to several Presidential administrations.
