Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of the grassroots dimension of social continuity and change in Russia since 1861, reintegrating the individuals and groups usually under-represented in the study of Russia. There are essays on topics as diverse as divorce, sex education and drinking behaviour.
Trade ReviewThis original and instructive volume based on the latest scholarly work is a colorful series of episodes that illuminates important themes in the social and cultural history of modern Russia. -- Laura Engelstein, Princeton University
I highly recommend The Human Tradition in Modern Russia as a supplementary text for undergraduate courses in Russian history. It presents thirteen short, accessible, and engaging essays on aspects of daily life and popular culture spanning the late Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods. Each section is usefully contextualized with a brief but substantive introduction. The essays explore such issues as health care; sexuality and prostitution; dress, dance, and consuming culture; popular religious belief and church authority; the juxtaposition of popular belief and 'modern' scientific assertion' and the confusing choices that ordinary Russians have confronted in the post-Soviet period. This new book provides an important corrective to texts focused on politics and them men in the Kremlin. -- Heather Hogan, Oberlin College
The Human Tradition in Modern Russia offers fascinating insights into some of the vital parts of Russian society that are almost never touched by textbooks. Solidly based on newly opened archives, the essays in this collection offer students the opportunity to become acquainted with some of the newest thinking by some of the field's leading experts. No other collection on the market accomplishes this task so well. -- W. Bruce Lincoln, Nothern Illinois University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction: The Persistence of Memory in Modern Russia Part 2 I. Reform, Modernization, and Imperial Society Chapter 3 Krylov vs. Krylova: 'Sexual Incapacity' and Divorce in Tsarist Russia Chapter 4 Old Believers in Imperial Russia: A Legend on the Appearance of Tobacco Chapter 5 An Epidemic of Possession in a Moscow Rural Parish in 1909 Part 6 II. The Communist Experiment Chapter 7 The Roots of Golden America in Early Soviet Russia Chapter 8 Moscow Chic: Silk Stockings and Soviet Youth Chapter 9 Russian Orthodoxy and the Tragic Fate of Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin) Chapter 10 'Ask the Doctor!': Peasants and Medical-Sexual Advice in Riazan Province, 1925-1928 Part 11 III. The Great Turn Chapter 12 Prostitutes and Proletarians: The Soviet Labor Clinic as Revolutionary Laboratory Chapter 13 Liquid Assets: Vodka and Drinking in Early Soviet Factories Chapter 14 The Cantor and the Commissar: Religious Persecution and Revolutionary Legality during the Cultural Revolution Part 15 IV. Stalinism and Beyond Chapter 16 Mr. Ezhov Goes to Moscow: The Rise of a Stalinist Police Chief Chapter 17 'Free, and Worth Every Kopeck': Soviet Medicine and Women in Postwar Russia Chapter 18 New Lives in the New Russia: Democratic Contradictions after the Fall of the Soviet Regime Chapter 19 Index
