num_pages: 304
description: Russia, 1910. Leo Tolstoy lies dying in Astapovo, a remote railway station. Members of the press from around the world have descended upon this sleepy hamlet to record his passing for a public suddenly ravenous for celebrity news. They have been joined by a film company whose cinematographer, Nikolai Gribshin, is capturing the extraordinary scene and learning how to wield his camera as a political tool. At this historic moment he comes across two men -- the scientist, Professor Vorobev, and the revolutionist, Joseph Stalin -- who have radical, mysterious plans for the future. Soon they will accompany him on a long, cold march through an era of brutality and absurdity. The Commissariat of Enlightenment is a mesmerizing novel of ideas that brilliantly links the tragedy and comedy of the Russian Revolution with the global empire of images that occupies our imaginations today.
language: English
title: The Commissariat of Enlightenment
titlecomplete: The Commissariat of Enlightenment
characters: Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Nikolai Gribshin, Leo Tolstoy
genres: Fiction, Historical, Russia, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Unfinished, Novels
ratings_count: 209
places: Russian Empire, Soviet Union, Russia
publisher: Ecco