The Premature Revolution: Russian Literature And Society 1917-1946
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded, with some minor edge wear and fading. Page Condition: Yellowed with age. Markings: No visible markings. Binding: Intact, no loose pages noted.
A landmark work in the study of Soviet cultural history, The Premature Revolution presents a sweeping critical analysis of Russian literature and its fraught relationship with society during one of the most turbulent periods of the twentieth century. Boris Thomson chronicles the years 1917 to 1946, examining how writers, poets, and intellectuals navigated — and often suffered under — the ideological demands of the Bolshevik revolution and the Stalinist state. With scholarly authority and keen analytical precision, the work argues that the revolution, rather than liberating artistic expression, fundamentally suppressed and distorted it, producing a literature shaped more by fear and propaganda than by genuine creative freedom. Thomson illustrates this tension through close readings of major Soviet authors and cultural movements, situating their works within the broader political and social upheavals of the era. The result is an indispensable account of how totalitarianism warps the relationship between art and truth.
Author: Boris Thomson
Format: Hardback
Published: 1972, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: Worn/faded, with some minor edge wear and fading. Page Condition: Yellowed with age. Markings: No visible markings. Binding: Intact, no loose pages noted.
A landmark work in the study of Soviet cultural history, The Premature Revolution presents a sweeping critical analysis of Russian literature and its fraught relationship with society during one of the most turbulent periods of the twentieth century. Boris Thomson chronicles the years 1917 to 1946, examining how writers, poets, and intellectuals navigated — and often suffered under — the ideological demands of the Bolshevik revolution and the Stalinist state. With scholarly authority and keen analytical precision, the work argues that the revolution, rather than liberating artistic expression, fundamentally suppressed and distorted it, producing a literature shaped more by fear and propaganda than by genuine creative freedom. Thomson illustrates this tension through close readings of major Soviet authors and cultural movements, situating their works within the broader political and social upheavals of the era. The result is an indispensable account of how totalitarianism warps the relationship between art and truth.