Grasping Russian Cultural History
The currents of Russian political thought from the founding of the Romanov Tsarist dynasty all the way through to the collapse of the Soviet Union coalesced around competitive Slavic and Western influences. During imperial times the various Slavophile and Westernizer camps fought an enduring intellectual battle as to which direction Russia ought to go as a nation. Inheriting this dualistic tradition were purist Bolsheviks who put ideology above all and more pragmatic communists who considered general Russian geopolitical interests vis-à-vis Western Europe (and later North America) to be most crucial. This political debate quickly became all-encompassing as it spread to the question of public and private culture. While the Soviet government managed to develop coherent and self-interested, if ever fluid, foreign and economic policies, the same cannot necessarily be said for cultural matters. Constant censorship, menacing purges, and other oppressive control measures severely limited artistic freedom of expression and humanistic vibrancy. In their quest to completely transform the entirety of a far-flung empire, Soviet leaders beginning with Lenin circumscribed and sought to disassemble and ignore the products of what many hi
As soon as the Bolsheviks had succeeded in toppling the weak liberal Provisional Government, purists, like Mayakovsky, started making comments such as “It’s time for bullets to pepper the museums!” (Figes, 449). They not only felt that Soviet Russia must leave the past in all of its forms behind and leap head first into the future, but that it must wholeheartedly sever all ties to current Western art and attempt to create a new form totally devoted to upholding the state and molding disciplined citizens. More moderate Bolsheviks argued that the proletariat base needed access to the old culture before it could embark on a new path. Lenin himself was considered “a conservative in artistic matters” who did not fully understand the implied advantages that new art could have in inciting the populace (Figes, 450). For, he always maintained that “we must preserve the beautiful,” even if the sublime is old guard (Figes, 450). Although he admitted that older art could only be a “starting point”, he was nonetheless more willing than most to recognize its exalted place in history (Figes, 450). In October 1917 the Bolsheviks seized power over a Russian Empire that had in the last few decades been gravitating as closely as ever towards the family of nations that comprised the so-called West. Russia had undoubtedly taken its
Some topics in this essay:
Soviet Russia,
North America,
Pavel Lebedev-Poliansky,
War Peace,
Slavophile Westernizer,
Rachmaninov Stravinsky,
Gogol Turgenev,
Tsarist Russia,
Provisional Government,
West Russia,
figes 450,
western culture,
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Approximate Word count = 908
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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