Jonathan Waterlow - Its Only A Joke, Comrade!: Humour, Trust and Everyday Life under Stalin

About the Author

Jonathan Waterlow received his PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford in 2012. He went on to hold a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at St Antonys College, Oxford, and was a Research Associate at the University of Bristol from 2016-18. Hes also been a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, and studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, and the Herzen State Pedagogical University in St Petersburg, Russia.

His personal website is jonwaterlow.com.

PRAISE FOR ITS ONLY A JOKE, COMRADE!

The best book on Stalinism Ive read in a long time. With unprecedented subtlety, Jon Waterlow explores the contradictory responses of Soviet citizens to the Stalin regime through a multi-faceted exploration of the ways in which telling jokes helped citizens cope with the pressures of living under a terroristic regime hell-bent on economic and social modernization.

The book will be required reading for those interested in the history of the Soviet Union, but also for anyone interested in understanding the manifold social and psychological functions that laughter can perform. Waterlow integrates solid archival research with an impressive command of the theoretical literature on humour and he writes lucidly and with verve. This is a book of great humanity and insight (with some good jokes thrown in).

Professor Stephen A. Smith, FBA

All Souls College, University of Oxford

Author of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism

and The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction.

A stunningly original study of Stalinist society, Its Only a Joke, Comrade! explodes the sterile binaries of consent and resistance to show that vast swathes of the Soviet population lived in the thickets of language and ideas where official ideology mingled with popular attitudes.

Waterlows fresh and fluent style crackles with wit and perception as he deftly teases out the veiled assumptions, fears and aspirations that underpinned the workings of (often gallows) humour in the 1930s Soviet Union. Essential reading for anyone interested in daily life under the Stalinist dictatorship but also for anyone interested in how human beings navigate a path through times of extraordinary upheaval, privation and danger.

Dr Daniel Beer, Royal Holloway, University of London

Author of The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile under the Tsars,

winner of the Cundill History Prize.

An extraordinary achievement. Jonathan Waterlow has found a unique lens into Stalinist society through this brilliant exploration of humor. Maneuvering through the dark days of the 1930s, ordinary people told jokes that belie the image of a cowed, totally repressed, atomized population. Rather than all Soviet people being divided into pro- and anti-Soviet, affirmation or dissent/resistance, they made up a muddled majority that practiced a critical acceptance of Soviet life. Humor was at one and the same time a safety valve, a form of social communication, and a critique often founded on acceptance of socialist values and disgust at their violation in the experiences of everyday life.

Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr.

Distinguished University Professor of History

The University of Michigan. Author of The Soviet Experiment.

Everyone knows that jokes mattered in the Soviet period, and that under Stalin, they could land you in prison. Jonathan Waterlows fascinating book is, however, a pioneering historical study of the genre, unique in its sensitivity to the social context in which jokes circulated.

Drawing on extensive unpublished material from archives, it captures the contrary functions of these small comic narratives, as instruments of social solidarity and not just of subversion.

It is also, as any book about jokes should be, lively, engaging, and at times very funny. A must read for anyone interested in Soviet or indeed Russian culture.

Professor Catriona Kelly, FBA,

New College, University of Oxford

Author of Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction.

This book re-vitalizes our understanding of Soviet society by demonstrating the ways in which humour served as a means of self-expression for Soviet citizens, offering them agency in their attempts to cope with and adapt to the demanding tribulations of everyday life whether in shopping queues or in the shadow of Stalins Great Terror. Its Only a Joke, Comrade! is not only an original contribution to the historiography of Stalinism, but contributes as well to our understanding of the role of popular humour, more generally, under authoritarian regimes of the twentieth century.

Professor Lynne Viola, FRSA, University of Toronto

Author of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial and The Unknown Gulag:

The Lost World of Stalins Special Settlements.

People laugh at the very darkest times as well, as Jonathan Waterlow reveals in his brilliant study of humour and trust under the Stalinist dictatorship. Uncovering the dark and often disturbing ironies of history, Its Only a Joke, Comrade! challenges our understanding of Soviet subjectivity by telling a compelling human story of peoples ability to maintain agency in their daily encounters with the Stalinist system.

Prodigiously researched and lucidly argued, this book will make a major contribution to understanding Stalinist culture and society. It will be read with great benefit and pleasure by both lay and expert readers. Highly recommended.

Dr Matthias Neumann, University of East Anglia Author of The

Communist Youth League and the Transformation of the Soviet

Union.

We are told that Stalinism was no laughing matter. Waterlow disagrees, revealing how popular humour was integral to how Soviet citizens engaged with the world around them.

Stalinism, a human drama. This important and engaging book reanimates ordinary Soviet citizens, revealing how they laughed and joked, shared and despaired, connected and communicated across one of the most traumatic periods in modern history. Through the medium of popular humour, Waterlow immerses us deep into the lived experience of ordinary folk during Stalins 1930s.

A revelatory account of how ordinary citizens experienced Stalinism. Essential reading.

Dr Andy Willimott, University of Reading

Author of Living the Revolution: Urban Communes and Soviet

Socialism, 1917-1932.

Humour is not an emotion usually associated with Stalins Soviet Union, but Jon Waterlows outstanding book shows how it was an integral part of the lives of Soviet citizens as they sought to make sense of the reality of life under the dictator. Enlivened by the bitter-sweet humour of Soviet men and women during the grim years of the 1930s, Its Only a Joke, Comrade! gives us a powerful insight into the way societies function at times of great stress and into the nature of humanity itself.

Professor Peter Waldron, University of East Anglia

Former President of the British Association for Slavonic and East

European Studies.

Its Only a Joke, Comrade! is a superb book readable, engagingly-written, original and intellectually sophisticated. Jon Waterlow shows us how ordinary Soviet citizens used jokes and humour to deal with the traumatic and often violent changes of the 1930s, and in doing so he makes a series of much broader interventions in debates over the nature of Stalinist society in the 1930s. Particularly interesting is his portrayal of the complexity of Soviet citizens attitudes to Stalinism, and of the nature of sociability and trust within Soviet society.