Epic Revisionism : Russian History and Literature As Stalinist Propaganda

°°°Kevin M. F. Platt is a professor of Russian & East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the periodic Russian-American poetry translation symposium “Your Language, My Ear.” His scholarly work focuses on Russian poetry, culture, & history. His translations of Russian poetry have appeared in World Literature Today, Jacket2, n+1, Fence, & other journals. He is the author or editor of several scholarly books, the most recent of which is Global Russian Cultures (University of Wisconsin Press). He was editor & lead translator for Hit Parade (Ugly Duckling Presse), a collection of contemporary poetry by the Latvia-based Orbita Group. Tolstoi in 1928 : in the mirror of the revolution / William Nickell Do we know how to celebrate jubilees? / Novus, from Chitatel' i pisatel', 7 November 1928 Rehabilitation and afterimage : Aleksei Tolstoi's many returns to Peter the Great / Kevin M.F. Platt Aleksei Tolstoi's remarks on the film Peter I / A. Danat, from Skorokhodovskii rabochii, 15 September 1937 Chronicle of a poet's downfall : Dem'ian Bednyi, Russian history and the epic heroes / A.M. Dubrovsky The reaction of writers and artists to the banning of D. Bednyi's play / NKVD report, 1936 The adventures of a Leskov story in Soviet Russia, or, the socialist realist opera that wasn't / Andrew Wachtel Muddle instead of music / [P.M. Kerzhentsev], from Pravda, 28 January 1936 The terrible tsar as comic hero : Mikhail Bulgakov's "Ivan Vasil'evich" / Maureen Perrie Terrible pragmatic : rewriting the history of Ivan IV's reign / David Brandenberger and Kevin M.F. Platt Memorandum to Stalin concerning A.N. Tolstoi's play "Ivan the Terrible" / A.S. Shcherbakov, 1941-1943 The 1937 Pushkin jubilee as epic trauma / Stephanie Sandler Glory to the Russian people / Editorial, from Pravda, 10 February 1937 During the Pushkin days / Mikhail Zoshchenko, from Krokodil 3, 5 (1937) The popular reception of S.M. Eisenstein's Aleksandr Nevskii / David Brandenberger An epic hero-people / Mikhail Kol'tsov, from Pravda, 7 November 1938 Reinventing the enemy : the villains of Glinka's opera Ivan Susanin on the Soviet stage / Susan Beam Eggers Ivan Susanin on the stage of the Bolshoi theater / B. Mordvinov, from Literaturnaia gazeta, 15 November 1939 Fashioning 'our Lermontov' : canonization and conflict in the Stalinist 1930s / David Powelstock In the poet's defense / A. Ragozin, from Pravda, 25 August 1939 An internationalist's complaint to Stalin / V.I. Blium, 31 January 1939.

Focusing on a number of historical and literary personalities who were regarded with disdain in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution—figures such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Lermontov—Epic Revisionism tells the fascinating story of these individuals’ return to canonical status during the darkest days of the Stalin era. 

    An inherently interdisciplinary project, Epic Revisionism features pieces on literary and cultural history, film, opera, and theater. This volume pairs scholarly essays with selections drawn from Stalin-era primary sources—newspaper articles, unpublished archival documents, short stories—to provide students and specialists with the richest possible understanding of this understudied phenomenon in modern Russian history.

“These scholars shed a great deal of light not only on Stalinist culture but on the politics of cultural production under the Soviet system.”—David L. Hoffmann, Slavic Review

Focusing on a number of historical and literary personalities who were regarded with disdain in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution—figures such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Lermontov—Epic Revisionism tells the fascinating story of these individuals’ return to canonical status during the darkest days of the Stalin era. 

    An inherently interdisciplinary project, Epic Revisionism features pieces on literary and cultural history, film, opera, and theater. This volume pairs scholarly essays with selections drawn from Stalin-era primary sources—newspaper articles, unpublished archival documents, short stories—to provide students and specialists with the richest possible understanding of this understudied phenomenon in modern Russian history.

“These scholars shed a great deal of light not only on Stalinist culture but on the politics of cultural production under the Soviet system.”—David L. Hoffmann, Slavic Review

Focusing on a number of historical and literary personalities who were regarded with disdain in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution—figures such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Lermontov— Epic Revisionism tells the fascinating story of these individuals' return to canonical status during the darkest days of the Stalin era. An inherently interdisciplinary project, Epic Revisionism features pieces on literary and cultural history, film, opera, and theater. This volume pairs scholarly essays with selections drawn from Stalin-era primary sources—newspaper articles, unpublished archival documents, short stories—to provide students and specialists with the richest possible understanding of this understudied phenomenon in modern Russian history. "These scholars shed a great deal of light not only on Stalinist culture but on the politics of cultural production under the Soviet system."—David L. Hoffmann, Slavic Review Epic Revisionism focuses on a number of historical and literary personalities who were regarded with disdain in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution-figures such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Lermontov-and tells the fascinating story of these individuals' return to canonical status during the darkest days of the Stalin era.An inherently interdisciplinary project, Epic Revisionism features pieces on literary and cultural history, film, opera, and theater. This volume also pairs its scholarly essays with selections drawn from Stalin-era primary sources-newspaper articles, unpublished archival documents, short stories-in order to provide students and specialists with the richest possible understanding of this understudied phenomenon in modern Russian history.