Engineers of the Soul The Grandiose Propaganda of Stalin's Russia

by Westerman, Frank; Garrett, Sam

• ISBN13: 9781590208533
• ISBN10: 1590208536
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-07
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Summary

The astounding and often comic story of writers fostering the tragic delusions of Stalinist Russia. frank Westerman draws the reader into the wild euphoria of the Russian Revolution, as art and reality are bent to radically new purposes. Writers of renown, described by Stalin as "engineers of the soul," were encouraged to sing the praises of canal and dam construction under titles such as Energy: The Hydraulic Power Station and Onward, Time! but their enthusiasm --spontaneous and idealistic at first --soon became an obligatory song of praise. and as these colossal waterworks led to slavery and destruction, soviet writers, such as Maxim Gorky, Isaak Babel, Konstantin Paustovsky, and Boris Pasternak, were forced to labor on in the service of a deluded totalitarian society. Combining investigative journalism with literary history, Engineers of the Soul is a journey through contemporary Russia and soviet-era literature. Westerman examines both the culture landscape under Stalin's rule and the book --and lives of writers caught in the wheels of the soviet system.

Author Biography

Frank Westerman was born in 1964 and lived and worked in Moscow from 1997 to 2002 as correspondent for the leading Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad. Westerman is the author of seven books, including Ararat: In Search of the Mythical Mountain. His work has been published in more than fifteen languages and has won many prizes.

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. 1
Number 1 Writer	p. 7
Maelstrom	p. 35
Belomor	p. 57
Botanist in the Desert	p. 81
Oriental Despotism	p. 107
The Illusion	p. 133
Stalin's Cherry Orchard	p. 159
Rab-Rabochy	p. 189
Hurrah Patriotism	p. 215
The Bay at Kara Bogaz	p. 243
Liriki vs Fiziki	p. 271
Acknowledgements	p. 299
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