Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Compared to the gargantuan, award-winning study of the Russian Revolution,A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, which consolidated Figes' reputation as one of the foremost authorities on the subject, this volume appears almost as an afterthought, running to less than 200 pages. Appearances, though, are by design deceptive, something the authors prove in their comprehensive analysis of the cultural manifestations and struggles that defined the events of 1917. Spin-doctors are taken to be a late 20th- century phenomenon, but there is little new under the sun. The rumour mongers who flooded Petrograd with tales of court debauchery, Rasputin and Germanic "dark forces", significantly helped Tsar Nicholas II bring about his own downfall, but what did not disappear with the hapless monarch were Tsarist attitudes. The workers, the peasants, the people (all terms endlessly defined and argued over) still demanded an authoritarian figure, which in turn allowed a cult of personality to develop, raising and then dashing characters such as Kerensky and Kournilov. In truth, Russia was a rather ugly patchwork of sects and divisions who were united only by their obeisance to a brutal creed of "them" and "us", though who was who remained ambiguous at best. "Bourgeois" meant all things to all men and when corrupted to the word "Burzhooi" was applied by peasants to all selfish, foreign, wealthy or educated persons, or in other words, not themselves. "Democracy" lost its constitutional gladrags in the mêlée, being used by the populace as the diametrical opposite to "bourgeois". Clothes, songs, flags and language became potent, stirring symbols (even prostitutes courted men with the cry "share some fraternity!"), as all sides struggled to define a lexicon of battle and to lay sole claim to the emblems of revolution. Figes and Kolonitskii dissect the semiotics of revolution with a thoroughness that does not prove intrusive to what is a fluid and commanding sociological text. From disparate, gabbling voices they've pieced together an alternative, mellifluous history of the symbolism endemic in 1917 Russia, which proves a small, but not slight, coda to its mammoth predecessor.--David Vincent
Product Description
This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive analysis of the political culture of the Russian Revolution. Orlando Figes and Boris Kolonitskii examine the diverse ways that language and other symbols - including flags and emblems, public rituals, songs, and codes of dress - were used to identify competing sides and to create new meanings in the political struggles of 1917. The Revolution was in many ways a battle to control these systems of symbolic meaning, the authors find. The party or faction that could master the complexities of the lexicon of the revolution was well on its way to mastering the revolution itself. The book explores how key words and symbols took on different meanings in various social and political contexts. 'Democracy', 'the people', or 'the working class', for example, could define a wide range of identities and moral worlds in 1917. In addition to such ambiguities, cultural tensions further complicated the revolutionary struggles. Figes and Kolonitskii consider the fundamental clash between the Western political discourse of the socialist parties and the traditional political culture of the Russian masses. They show how the particular conditions and perceptions that coloured Russian politics in 1917 led to the emergence of the cult of the revolutionary leader and the culture of the Terror. Orlando Figes was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, London. He is the author of 'Peasant Russia', 'Civil War' and 'A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924'. Boris Kolonitskii was Senior Researcher at the Institute of History of the Academcy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
We recently travelled through Poland, having read a couple of books about Eastern Europe before. This whetted our interest for reading more on the region. I am enjoying Mr. Figes book enormously. The book helped us understand the power of images on the development of hero worship and the way these images are deliberately used by the government, but aso by political parties to move and sway public opinion on public figures. Mr Figes writes clearly, explainign cmplex ideas in a clear form. I am a fan of his other books on Russia.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Very interesting book with some flaws
12 Sep 2003
Format:Hardcover
This book by Orlando Figes and Boris Kolonitskii examines how language and symbols were used in and influenced the course of the Russian revolution.
The book is particularly good examining how rumors circulated around Petrograd and Russia about the Imperial family, especially a supposed relationship between the Tsarina and Rasputin and how they undermined the people's confidence in the Tsar.
The book is also very good in examining how symbols and words meant different things to different segments of Russian society, and how the Bolsheviks specifically avoided trying to publically define what each symbol and word meant to them, and therefore let the population believe that whatever they defined something as, the Bolsheviks believed that too and supported it. Figes and Kolonitskii at the end of the book detail how this tendency to let people define something for themselves led to many people defining certain words quite broadly, which led to reprisals against certain people that were defined as too rich or too educated that even the Bolsheviks would not have condoned.
Unfortunately, this book does have some methodological problems. At certain points, Figes supports his argument with nothing more than a citation from his own book, which is a highly dubious practice in scholarly works. The book also in its opening chapter on rumors, doesn't make clear that specific factual evidence of how widespread rumors about the Imperial family is only published evidence from AFTER the February 1917 revolution. The authors assume that because this explosion of anti-Imperial literature occured right after the Tsar was deposed, it must have been wide spread via word of mouth before February 1917. It's a reasonable assumption, but they don't support it well, and also do not make it clear that this published evidence comes after February 1917, not before.
Otherwise however, this is a very good book and extremely readable, unlike other works of the post-moderism genre.
The book is particularly good examining how rumors circulated around Petrograd and Russia about the Imperial family, especially a supposed relationship between the Tsarina and Rasputin and how they undermined the people's confidence in the Tsar.
The book is also very good in examining how symbols and words meant different things to different segments of Russian society, and how the Bolsheviks specifically avoided trying to publically define what each symbol and word meant to them, and therefore let the population believe that whatever they defined something as, the Bolsheviks believed that too and supported it. Figes and Kolonitskii at the end of the book detail how this tendency to let people define something for themselves led to many people defining certain words quite broadly, which led to reprisals against certain people that were defined as too rich or too educated that even the Bolsheviks would not have condoned.
Unfortunately, this book does have some methodological problems. At certain points, Figes supports his argument with nothing more than a citation from his own book, which is a highly dubious practice in scholarly works. The book also in its opening chapter on rumors, doesn't make clear that specific factual evidence of how widespread rumors about the Imperial family is only published evidence from AFTER the February 1917 revolution. The authors assume that because this explosion of anti-Imperial literature occured right after the Tsar was deposed, it must have been wide spread via word of mouth before February 1917. It's a reasonable assumption, but they don't support it well, and also do not make it clear that this published evidence comes after February 1917, not before.
Otherwise however, this is a very good book and extremely readable, unlike other works of the post-moderism genre.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Orlando Figes doesn't sound Russian ... BUT...
30 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Orlando Figes doesn't sound like the name of a Russian hostorian... but ... don't let than fool you. This book ("Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917") is the second of Figes's books about the Russian revolution that I have read.
The author does an outstanding job drilling into the details and developing 'the backstory' that provides the real color of the events and makes this timespan extremely interesting.
The author does an outstanding job drilling into the details and developing 'the backstory' that provides the real color of the events and makes this timespan extremely interesting.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
