It All Started with Gogol: Scenes from Life in Russia

It All Started with Gogol: Scenes from Life in Russia PDF Author: Thomas L. Aman
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1466943319
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
During the 70 years of the Soviet era leaders created one of the most rigidly controlled societies in history. Their objective was to mold citizens into docile conformists and devoted servants of the State. As an antidote to our personal freedoms they conditioned their citizens to distrust all foreigners since their goal was, by definition, to undermine Soviet power. An unrelenting propaganda assault glorified the virtues of their system and reinforced hostility toward any outside entity. The governing bureaucracy appeared monolithic but was actually extremely vulnerable. The system itself was defective; unwittingly it motivated individuals to bypass the strict application of the law and discover other techniques of coping. Russians exhibited a boundless creativity in circumventing regulations. Their deliverance lay in mastering a very inventive, humorous and witty approach to an existence that was otherwise grim beyond description. Russia is an endlessly fascinating land, unexpected and unpredictable, producing delight as well as despair. It consists of humane and warm-hearted people oppressed by endless years of a stultifying bureaucracy. But given the opportunity basic humanity would peek through the bureaucratic facade and manifest itself in ways sometimes benevolent, or humorous, or compassionate, but always endearing. The present review summarizes a number of adventures and experiences that personify these traits.

It All Started with Gogol: Scenes from Life in Russia

It All Started with Gogol: Scenes from Life in Russia PDF Author: Thomas L. Aman
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1466943319
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
During the 70 years of the Soviet era leaders created one of the most rigidly controlled societies in history. Their objective was to mold citizens into docile conformists and devoted servants of the State. As an antidote to our personal freedoms they conditioned their citizens to distrust all foreigners since their goal was, by definition, to undermine Soviet power. An unrelenting propaganda assault glorified the virtues of their system and reinforced hostility toward any outside entity. The governing bureaucracy appeared monolithic but was actually extremely vulnerable. The system itself was defective; unwittingly it motivated individuals to bypass the strict application of the law and discover other techniques of coping. Russians exhibited a boundless creativity in circumventing regulations. Their deliverance lay in mastering a very inventive, humorous and witty approach to an existence that was otherwise grim beyond description. Russia is an endlessly fascinating land, unexpected and unpredictable, producing delight as well as despair. It consists of humane and warm-hearted people oppressed by endless years of a stultifying bureaucracy. But given the opportunity basic humanity would peek through the bureaucratic facade and manifest itself in ways sometimes benevolent, or humorous, or compassionate, but always endearing. The present review summarizes a number of adventures and experiences that personify these traits.

A Gentleman in Moscow

A Gentleman in Moscow PDF Author: Amor Towles
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448135508
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French 'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave 'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year '[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year 'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all? A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT) THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019 NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

Literature and Society in Imperial Russia, 1800-1914

Literature and Society in Imperial Russia, 1800-1914 PDF Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804766754
Category : Literature and society
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Ranging in topic from general discussions of literary theory to close readings of well known literary works, these nine papers address nearly every literary movement in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Russia, and a number of major writers, including Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky. Four kinds of issues are addressed: theoretical problems in the relationship of literature and society, the reading public, the rhetoric and ideologies of writers and critics, and the relationship between fictional and social worlds. In confronting some of the ways in which the social and literary aspects of Russian culture have imposed themselves upon each other, this volume seeks an approach to Russian literature that neglects neither the dynamics of social interaction nor the forms and traditions of literature. The contributors are Robert L. Belknap, Jeffrey Brooks, Edward J. Brown, Donald Fanger, Jean Franco, Robert Louis Jackson, Hugh McLean, Victor Ripp, and William Mills Todd III.

Classics in Russia 1700-1855

Classics in Russia 1700-1855 PDF Author: Marinus A. Wes
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004246827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
The author shows how the history of the classical tradition in Russia cannot be separated from the history of Russia's orientation to Western Europe in general. His book, based on many little-known and previously unexplored Russian materials, is the result of the first comprehensive research on the study of the Greek and Roman classics in Russia, and its sociocultural —utopian as well as ideological— function within the framework of Russian cultural and intellectual history and Russian educational policy from the accession of Peter the Great to the death of Nicholas I. A tradition does not exist apart from the people who adhere to it and the networks they create in order to ensure some kind of growth and continuity. Therefore the author has ordered his material into an interpretive framework based on a prosopographical approach towards the subject. Among specific writers and poets discussed are Pushkin, Gogol, Goncharov and Turgenev.

Classics in Russia 1700-1855

Classics in Russia 1700-1855 PDF Author: Marinus Antony Wes
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004096646
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
What role did classical Graeco-Roman culture play in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian society, on the institutional level as well as in the lives of individual Russian intellectuals? Through a series of case-studies of classics-in-action the book illustrates the tension between aims and results, expectations and achievements.

Russia: By a Recent Traveller

Russia: By a Recent Traveller PDF Author: Charles Henry Pearson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429656246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
First published in 1859, Russia: By a Recent Traveller was originally prompted by the Publication in the English press in December 1857 of the Imperial Proclamaton of the imminent emancipation of the Russian serfs, upon which Perason planned a visit to Russia in the summer of 1858 to gain first-hand impressions of the state of the country and information about the problems connected with the 'Great Reform'. The fruits of his journey were his 'Letters', published in fifteen successive numbers of the weekly Continental Review, between 22 September and 29 December 1858.

Russomania

Russomania PDF Author: Rebecca Beasley
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198802129
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
Russomania is the first comprehensive account of the breadth and depth of the modernist fascination with Russian and early Soviet culture. It traces Russia's transformative effect on literary and intellectual life in Britain between 1881 and 1922, from the assassination of Alexander II to the formation of the Soviet Union. Studying canonical writers alongside a host of less well known authors and translators, it provides an archive-rich study of institutions, disciplines, and networks. Book jacket.

Speak Clearly Into the Chandelier

Speak Clearly Into the Chandelier PDF Author: John C. Q. Roberts
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317849310
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book provides a unique view of British-Russian relations during the last fifteen years of the Soviet regime and thereafter into the post-communist era. As Director of a Foreign-Office-funded organisation promoting professional, intellectual and cultural contacts between Britain and Russia, Roberts earned the trust of leading figures in both countries. At the same time he had to maintain cross-party support in Parliament and the confidence of his Whitehall paymasters. These last occasionally proved as obstructive as the Soviet organisations - all opposed to unfettered contact with western people and ideas - with which he had to maintain a modus operandi. Undeterred by Cold War rhetoric, the author contrived to break down barriers and to earn the trust and gratitude of writers, musicians, theatre and film directors, scientists and even politicians. This is their eye-witness history, no less than his.

Lyceum

Lyceum PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Catholics
Languages : en
Pages : 786

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Book Description


The Chautauquan

The Chautauquan PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description