DOI: 10.3998/mpub.9354
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Bolshevik Visions
First Phase of the Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia, Part 1
Second Edition
The first volume of a collection of writings by early Soviet critics and theorists
Description
Series
For all of its upheaval, revolution provides that rarest of opportunities: the possibility of creating;a new social and cultural architecture. Bolshevik Visions has been revised for its second printing and made into a two-part collection of writings by early Soviet critics and theoreticians. These writings allow us to see both the diversity of opinion about what these writers thought the new order should be, and its radical visionary essence. They were, and still are, coping with fundamental questions of the Soviet revolution:
If old morals are discredited, what should take their place?
If established art lacks imagination, what, if any, should be the limits on artistic creativity?
If law is corrupt, on what basis should a new legality be established?
What in essence should a communist "be like"?
What values should underly his or her education and outlooks?
What, in the end, is the meaning of a socialist community?
Like their present day counterparts in Gorbachev's new Russia, the critics represented in this collection are exhilarated by the very possibility of radical change, but also caught in a welter of contradiction. Their views are grouped under a variety of topics, each introduced by the editor: The Ideal Communist, Sex Roles, Marriage and the Family, Social Welfare, Religion, Habits of Language, Customs, Proletarian Law, Labor and Education, Film, Architecture, City Planning, and the Arts.
"It should be emphasized, however, that the materials in these books are about visions, not realities; about the hopes, partly utopian, of artists, educators, and jurists, not the actualities of Bolshevik practice. Nor were they collected because of their relationship to the perspectives and cultures of perestroika and glasnost'. The materials were assembled, simply, to help illuminate an exciting and neglected area of Russia's revolutionary experience. . . . Whether there was merit in these first visionary efforts to 'build a new life,' and whether they offer possibilities for the present generation, is for readers to judge for themselves." ---from the editor's introduction
Look Inside
Contents of Part 1
Illustrations in Part 1 xiii
Introduction to the Second Edition 1
Note on Transliteration 12
I. What a Communist Ought to Be Like
Introduction 15
Tasks of the Youth Leagues (Bourgeois and Communist Morality) [1920]
V.I. Lenin 21
What a Communist Ought to Be Like [1922]
N. Krupskaya 26
Communist Ethics [1922]
A.A. Solts 30
Bringing Up the Young Generation [1922]
N. Bukharin 43
Revolution and the Cultural Tasks of the Proletariat [1918]
P.I. Lebedev-Polyansky 50
II. The New Man and the New Woman: Sex Roles, Marriage, and the Family
Introduction 61
The Family and the Communist State [1918]
A. Kollontai 67
From the Old Family to the New [1923]
L. Trotsky 77
Make Way for the Winged Eros [1923]
A. Kollontai 84
The Sex Life of Man [1924]
L.A. and L.M. Vasilevsky 95
The Law, Life, and Everyday Living [1925]
Letters to Pravda and Izvestiya 99
The "Winged Eros" of Comrade Kollontai [1923]
P. Vinogradskaya 112
My Life (The Story of Maria Fedotovna Filipenko) [1924]
M.F. Filipenko 121
III. Socialism and Social Welfare
Introduction 127
The Tasks of Public Health in Soviet Russia [1919]
N. Semashko 130
The Tasks of Social Welfare in Soviet Russia [1919]
A. Vinokurov 133
Work of the People's Commissariat of Health [1921]
N. Semashko 139
How Can We Protect the Children? [1924]
The Mother of a Child 146
Protection of a Mother, Baby, and Child in Russia [1921]
N. Semashko 149
IV. Proletarian Legality
Introduction 153
Proletarian Law [1919]
P. Stuchka 159
Guiding Principles of Criminal Law in the R.S.F.S.R. [1919]
People's Commissariat of Justice 165
The Proletarian Revolution and Criminal Law [1919]
I. Kozlovsky 170
The Proletariat and Civil Law [1919]
A. Goikhbarg 178
The Old and New Court [1918]
P. Stuchka 185
Five Years of Revolution in Law [1922]
P. Stuchka 190
The General Theory of Law and Marxism [1924]
E. Pashukanis 197
V. Religion, Language, and Other "Awkward Habits" of Everyday Life
Introduction 215
Habit and Custom [1923]
L. Trotsky 219
The Fight against Prostitution [1921]
A. Kollontai 224
The Struggle for Cultured Speech [1923]
L. Trotsky 230
"Thou" and "You" in the Red Army [1922]
L. Trotsky 234
Communism and Religion [1923]
S. Kheglund (Z. Hoglund) 236
Is the Communist Movement Anti-Religious? (An Answer to Kheglund) [1923]
E.E. Yaroslavsky 239
On Anti-Religious Agitation and Propaganda among Women Workers and Peasants [1921]
Central Committee, RKP 244
"Calling All Believers," "Science or Religion?" "Without God, with Man" [1923]
The Editors of Bezbozhnik 248
"A Day of Testing in the Commune" [1921]
Pravda, Agitprop essay 254
Notes 257
Suggestions for Further Reading 259
Contents for Part 2 265
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