Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917 [Hardcover]

Dr. Orlando Figes (Author), Boris Kolonitsk II (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300081065 | ISBN-13: 978-0300081060 | Publication Date: October 11, 1999 | Edition: First Edition

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this scholarly reduction of the Russian Revolution, Figes (A People's Tragedy, etc.), professor of history at Birbeck College, London, and Kolonitskii, senior researcher at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, examine the minutiae of political culture circa 1917, concluding that the often-neglected struggles played out in popular cultureAvia rumors, jokes, flag waving and singingAhad significant impacts on political events in Russia. "The demonization of the old regime was a vital means of legitimizing and enforcing unity around 'the revolution,'" the authors argue. They then offer extensive examples from letters, movies, postcards and newspapers that demonstrate the popular conclusion that the empress was a German spy and a woman of loose sexual morals and that her husband was a weak cuckold. Most interesting is an analysis of the use of the same symbols by opposing forcesAmany political parties opposing the Romanov monarchy, such as Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and anarchists, waved the same red flags and sang the same revolutionary anthems. After the Romanovs were deposed, a struggle began among the parties to appropriate the most effective symbols for themselves. While the book is certainly not, as the jacket claims, "the first book in any language to offer an analysis of the political culture of the Russian Revolution" (James von Geldern's 1993 Bolshevik Festivals 1917-1920, Univ. of California, offers a good analysis of its own), it is a fine contribution to an understudied area of Russian history. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Figes, already the author of a superb study of the Russian Revolution (A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924), and his Russian colleague Kolonitskii here examine the symbols and popular passions of revolutionary Russia in 1917. From the initial antitsarist iconoclasm through the endless singing of revolutionary anthems, the cult of the new leaders thrown up by tsarism's collapse, and the swelling hatred of the privileged "burzhooi," we get a fascinating picture of how deeply the people rejected the old order and how much they aspired to become something better in the new. The return of many of the old names and symbols so furiously rejected in 1917 in a post-Soviet Russia adds a final ironic note to Russia's violent century. This volume will greatly interest the specialists and historians of Russia and revolutions.ARobert H. Johnston, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ont.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (October 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300081065
• ISBN-13: 978-0300081060
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #795,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting book with some flaws, September 11, 2003

By 

Christopher J. Martin (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917 (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.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Orlando Figes doesn't sound Russian ... BUT..., March 30, 2009

By 

Ray de Frijje "OneObservation" ("lesser metropolitan" Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917 (Hardcover)

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.