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Winner of the 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic TitlesMark D. Steinberg explores the work of individuals he recognizes as utopians during the most dramatic period in Russian and Soviet history. It has long been a cliché to argue that Russian revolutionary movements have been inspired by varieties of 'utopian dreaming' - claims which, although not wrong, are too often used uncritically. For the first time,
Russian Utopian digs deeper and asks what utopians meant at the level of ideas, emotions, and lived experience.
Despite the fact that many would have resisted the 'utopian' label at the time because of its dismissive meanings, Steinberg's comprehensive approach sees him take in political leaders, intellectuals, writers, and artists (visual, material, and musical), as well as workers, peasants, soldiers, students and others. Ideologically, the figures discussed range from reactionaries to anarchists, nationalists (including non-Russians) to feminists, both religious believers and 'the militant godless'. This innovative text dissects the very notion of the Russian utopian and examines its significance in its various fascinating contexts.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Wings of Utopia
2. The New Person
3. The New City
4. The New State
Selected Further Reading
Index
About the author
Mark D. Steinberg is Professor of History at the University of Illinois, USA. He is the author of several books, including A History of Russia (9th Ed., 2018; co-authored with Nicholas V. Riasanovsky), The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921 (2017) and Petersburg Fin de Siècle (2011). His books have been translated into Portuguese, Japanese and Russian. He is also the co-editor of volumes such as Interpreting Emotions in Russia and Eastern Europe (2011; with Valeria Sobol) and Religion, Morality, and Community in Post-Soviet Societies (2008; with Catherine Wanner).
Summary
Winner of the 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles
Mark D. Steinberg explores the work of individuals he recognizes as utopians during the most dramatic period in Russian and Soviet history. It has long been a cliché to argue that Russian revolutionary movements have been inspired by varieties of ‘utopian dreaming’ – claims which, although not wrong, are too often used uncritically. For the first time, Russian Utopian digs deeper and asks what utopians meant at the level of ideas, emotions, and lived experience.
Despite the fact that many would have resisted the ‘utopian’ label at the time because of its dismissive meanings, Steinberg’s comprehensive approach sees him take in political leaders, intellectuals, writers, and artists (visual, material, and musical), as well as workers, peasants, soldiers, students and others. Ideologically, the figures discussed range from reactionaries to anarchists, nationalists (including non-Russians) to feminists, both religious believers and ‘the militant godless’. This innovative text dissects the very notion of the Russian utopian and examines its significance in its various fascinating contexts.
Additional text
Mark Steinberg breathes new life into utopianism --often dismissed as naïve or dangerous-- by showing it to be a more grounded belief in possibilities for improving the world in the face of circumstances ranging from difficult to disastrous. This engaging and illuminating study locates utopian thinking across the political spectrum in modern Russia, in the everyday experiences of ordinary, unsung people as well as in works by more famous visionaries. Rather than fixate on the ultimate failures of some of these ideas, Steinberg shows us the ways that utopianism opened up new avenues for social and political practices of all kinds.
