Chapter 1 Introduction

The authors of our book focus on Soviet scholars and cultural theoreticians during the Stalin era from a methodological perspective that distinguishes between Stalinism and culture, an outlook that forms one of the common threads of the book. This introductory chapter focuses on the theoretical grou...

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Asıl Yazarlar: Viljanen, Elina, Oittinen, Vesa
Materyal Türü: Online
Dil:İngilizce
Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: Taylor & Francis 2023
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Online Erişim:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/62903
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author Viljanen, Elina
Oittinen, Vesa
author_browse Oittinen, Vesa
Viljanen, Elina
author_facet Viljanen, Elina
Oittinen, Vesa
author_sort Viljanen, Elina
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The authors of our book focus on Soviet scholars and cultural theoreticians during the Stalin era from a methodological perspective that distinguishes between Stalinism and culture, an outlook that forms one of the common threads of the book. This introductory chapter focuses on the theoretical grounding of this approach. We argue that the received picture of Soviet culture in general and of Stalin era culture in particular has yet to be fully disentangled from the political and historical narratives of the Cold War epoch, especially with respect to the persistent traits of totalitarianism theory in defining Stalinism. The point of departure from the still dominant ’revisionist’ model of Soviet historiography involves the proposition that Stalin’s brand of totalitarianism was a collective cultural product. Our book in turn revises this thesis by claiming that Stalin rarely sought to control culture in a totalitarian manner. He was aware of the limits of control over culture. Meanwhile, society in general and notable cultural actors in particular need to be contextualised and theorised as political subjects from various points of view. Stalinism was a phenomenon that was organically embedded in the culture of the era – thus the metaphor of a ‘parasite’ seems to describe this relationship in a more adequate manner Stalin era intellectuals can be viewed as cultural actors who adopted different ‘patriotic’ strategies from the political arena to gain some level of autonomy that enabled to them to function in their fields. These strategies ensured that certain theoretical ideas were able to persist despite major political campaigns.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-999192025-07-17T12:15:39Z Chapter 1 Introduction Viljanen, Elina Oittinen, Vesa Stalinism, revisionism, cultural politics, politics of culture, Cold War, Stalin-era intellectual culture thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government The authors of our book focus on Soviet scholars and cultural theoreticians during the Stalin era from a methodological perspective that distinguishes between Stalinism and culture, an outlook that forms one of the common threads of the book. This introductory chapter focuses on the theoretical grounding of this approach. We argue that the received picture of Soviet culture in general and of Stalin era culture in particular has yet to be fully disentangled from the political and historical narratives of the Cold War epoch, especially with respect to the persistent traits of totalitarianism theory in defining Stalinism. The point of departure from the still dominant ’revisionist’ model of Soviet historiography involves the proposition that Stalin’s brand of totalitarianism was a collective cultural product. Our book in turn revises this thesis by claiming that Stalin rarely sought to control culture in a totalitarian manner. He was aware of the limits of control over culture. Meanwhile, society in general and notable cultural actors in particular need to be contextualised and theorised as political subjects from various points of view. Stalinism was a phenomenon that was organically embedded in the culture of the era – thus the metaphor of a ‘parasite’ seems to describe this relationship in a more adequate manner Stalin era intellectuals can be viewed as cultural actors who adopted different ‘patriotic’ strategies from the political arena to gain some level of autonomy that enabled to them to function in their fields. These strategies ensured that certain theoretical ideas were able to persist despite major political campaigns. 2023-05-03T04:03:52Z 2023-05-03T04:03:52Z 2023-05-02T17:25:30Z 2023 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/62903 9781032114200 9781032114217 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/99919 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/62903/1/9781003219835_10.4324_9781003219835-1.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/62903/1/9781003219835_10.4324_9781003219835-1.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/62903/1/9781003219835_10.4324_9781003219835-1.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003219835-1 10.4324/9781003219835-1 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 Stalin Era Intellectuals 9781032114200 9781032114217 Routledge 22 open access
spellingShingle Stalinism, revisionism, cultural politics, politics of culture, Cold War, Stalin-era intellectual culture
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
Viljanen, Elina
Oittinen, Vesa
Chapter 1 Introduction
title Chapter 1 Introduction
title_full Chapter 1 Introduction
title_fullStr Chapter 1 Introduction
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 1 Introduction
title_short Chapter 1 Introduction
title_sort chapter 1 introduction
topic Stalinism, revisionism, cultural politics, politics of culture, Cold War, Stalin-era intellectual culture
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
topic_facet Stalinism, revisionism, cultural politics, politics of culture, Cold War, Stalin-era intellectual culture
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/62903
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