Russia has a long history of national anthems. In the times of the Imperial Russia, “The Prayer of the Russians” which was then morphed into “God Save the Tsar” was chosen as anthem (source and source). These anthems interestingly were modeled after British “God Save the King” and “Rule Britannia” as well as other anthems … Continue reading Tsar spangled banner
Month: April 2019
Cinema, Censorship, and TGPW
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Prior to the 1930s, literature and the arts were seen as facets of bourgeois society, accessible and understandable only to the upper echelons with little influence on the proletariat who seldom had the access or knowledge to identify with them. In August 1934, at The First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers socialist realism was deemed … Continue reading Cinema, Censorship, and TGPW
The Katyn Massacre
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A devastating massacre in the forest just outside of Smolensk was kept a secret for almost fifty years. The extent of the truth was not fully acknowledged until twenty years after that. What happened in the forest was among the first of the gruesome and senseless series of murders that took place during World War … Continue reading The Katyn Massacre →
Building Socialism: Entertainment, Purges and the Family
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We had a terrific crop of posts this week, with submissions touching on everything from film and the family to the purges and the Moscow Metro. This research digest offers valuable insight on many components of the “Great Retreat” (Soviet Champagne, anyone?) and explores the contradictions and complexities of Soviet life in the thirties. Your editorial team hopes you will catch up on posts in the slider and in Comrades’ Corner. And do checkout the Students Choice award, which was a particularly close contest this week.
The trauma of World War II and the contradictions of the postwar period await. Вперед!
4th Blogpost Guidelines: Defending the Motherland and “High Stalinism”
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This week we turn our attention to The Great Patriotic War (aka World War II) and the immediate post-war period. Please use one of the modules from 1943 or 1947 in Seventeen Moments in Soviet History on-line archive. You should consult Ch. 12 in the Freeze text. If you are writing about something specific to the war, it would be worth considering William C. Fuller’s discussion on pp. 383-392 of Freeze about the reasons for Soviet victory. (We worked on this in class on Tuesday.)
I have also flagged some resources that might be of interest on my blog here.
As you develop your topic, think about how your post might address these questions:
She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy
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Ivan Pyriev’s 1939 comedy film, Tractor Drivers, starts out similar to that of a bad joke, a Georgian, Ukrainian, and Russian all get on a train. On their way home, these three men, all from different backgrounds yet bow down to the same rules, share their plans for when they get home. The easy camaraderie … Continue reading She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy
