Brovkin V. - Russia After Lenin: Politics, Culture and Society, 1921-1929

Following the Russian Revolution, the cultural and political landscape of Russia was strewn with contradictions. The dictatorship, censorship and repression of the Communist party existed alongside private enterprise, the black market and open debates on Socialism. In Russian Society and politics 1921-1929 Vladimir Brovkin offers a comprehensive cultural, political, economic and social history of developments in Russia in the 1920s. By examining the contrast between Bolshevik propaganda claims and social reality, the author explains how Communist representations were variously received and resisted by workers, peasants, students, women, teachers and party officials. He presents a picture of cultural diversity and rejection of Communist constraints through many means including unauthorised protest, religion, jazz music and poetry. In Russian Society and Politics 1921-1929 Vladimir Brovkin argues that these trends, if left unchecked, endangered the Communist Partys monopoly on political power. The Stalinist revolution can thus be seen as a pre-emptive strike against this independent and vibrant society as well as a product of Stalins personality and communist ideology.;Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction Revolutionary identity -- RUSSIAN SOCIALISM -- THE BOLSHEVIK VALUE SYSTEM -- UTOPIAN VISION, 1917 -- SMASHING THE BOURGEOIS STATE -- NEP SOCIETY -- The intelligentsia -- The masses -- Political discourse -- Chapter 1 Extracting socially alien elements -- POLITICAL PARTIES AND INTELLIGENTSIA -- OPERATION THE LIVING CHURCH -- THE FORMER PEOPLE -- Chapter 2 The Culture of the New Elite 1921-5 Ascetic knights and drinking pals -- OLD HABITS AND NEW TASTES -- EDUCATING THE NEW PARTY CADRES -- DISSIDENT VOICES -- Chapter 3 Bolshevik actions and peasants reactions, 1921-5 Face the village, face defeat -- WHO KNEW WHAT -- PEASANT CONCERNS -- STRATEGIES OF COPING -- Representations -- The Peasant Union movement -- ELECTIONS, 1925 -- Chapter 4 Propaganda and popular belief -- AGITPROP: ERADICATING ALIEN INFLUENCE -- POTEMKIN VILLAGES ON THE IDEOLOGICAL FRONT -- ANTI-RELIGIOUS CAMPAIGNS58 -- POPULAR RELIGIOSITY -- Chapter 5 The Komsomol and youth A transmission belt that snapped -- REPRESENTATIONS -- RURAL CELLS: HOOLIGANISM AND DRUNKENNESS -- WORKERS: VODKA, SEX, AND DEFIANCE -- Vodka -- Sex -- Defiance -- STUDENTS: POVERTY, DECADENCE, AND DISSENT -- Poverty -- Decadence97 -- Dissent -- Chapter 6 Women: false promises, dashed hopes, and the pretense of emancipation -- RURAL WOMEN: STAYING OUT OR GETTING INVOLVED?6 -- FACTORY WOMEN: FROM COMPLAINTS TO PROTEST -- A NEW SOVIET WOMAN: DATING, FASHIONS, AND FOX-TROT -- BOLSHEVIK WOMEN -- Chapter 7 Towards showdown in the countryside, 1926-8 -- RURAL PARTY: ADAPTATION, DEFIANT REJECTION, AND INTERVENTION -- Adaptation -- Defiant rejection -- Intervention -- RADICALIZATION, 1926 -- ELECTIONS, 1927 -- BOLSHEVIK DILEMMAS, 1928.