The years following the time period known as “the thaw” (refering to the thawing of Stalin’s cultural ice age) the new soviet General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, looked to present an appearance of a continuing thaw,Continue reading
Read moreThe postwar era in Soviet Russia was a time of optimism in terms of national pride and rebuilding the country. “The Big Deal” was a product of a larger cultural evolution in the mid-1930s whereby social stability was valued over…
Read more
During the years of 1946-1957, the Soviet Union experienced one of it’s three largest famines, after several years of success and happiness seen during the industrial period in the 1930s. The famine happened for a few reasons, though out of…
Since man had the capability to harness fire and chisel rock, we have had a thirst and want to wage war. War is among the most ancient and storied of human practices, and as a result there is an emotional undercurrent stronger than that of many of today’s religious practices. This emotional undercurrent is such that … Continue reading “…There is no Fear in Love…” →
Propaganda and rhetoric was never foreign to the Soviet Union or the Bolsheviks and was a tool utilized by them on regular basis. The Purges however took this tool that the Party had used against the Whites and the enemies of the Soviet Union and now directed it at it own citizens, specifically those that… More A Tale of Two Poems
Steel and machinery are two crowning results of industrial power and ingenuity. With Stalin’s first Five Year Plan complete, the USSR had reached a level of industrialization achieved by few other nations.Pictured above is a parade of Soviet T-34 battle tanks. This beast of steel was the Soviet’s primary battle tank from 1934 through World War Two. The … Continue reading “… Train my hands for war, and my fingers for battle…” →
While one part of the 1930s seemed to focus on how much life in Russia had improved under the Soviet Union and specifically the policies of Joseph Stalin, on the other hand, there was a great amount of fear, due to domestic policies like the Purges and international pressures, like the eve of World War […]
Read moreThe Young Guard is a classic Soviet poem written by Aleksandr Bezymensky, who was a member of the first wave of Soviet poets and literary minds who came after the Revolution of 1917 occurred. The poem is about the men and women who led the Russian revolution, known as the Young Guard. The poem outlines their […]
This week’s blogpost is about a Russian futurism. This idea and style of both art and literary work had a very prominent Russian figure named Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. The idealism behind this was to get rid of the normal traditional ways of Russian life, and to embrace industrialism and change within their society. Russian futurists liked […]
