Living the revolution
Subtitle: urban communes & Soviet socialism, 1917-1932
By: Andy Willimott
Edition: First edition.
Series: Oxford studies in modern European history; Oxford studies in modern European history
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9780198725824
Subjects: Communitarianism; History
Description: Offers a pioneering insight into the world of the early Soviet activist. At the heart of this book is a cast of fiery-eyed, bed-headed youths determined to be the change they wanted to see in the world. First banding together in the wake of the October Revolution, seizing hold of urban apartments, these youthful enthusiasts tried to offer practical examples of socialist living. Calling themselves "urban communes," they embraced total equality and shared everything from money to underwear. They actively sought to overturn the traditional family unit, reinvent domesticity, and promote a new collective vision of human interaction. A trend was set: a revolutionary meme that would, in the coming years, allow thousands of would-be revolutionaries and aspiring party members to experiment with the possibilities of socialism. The first definitive account of the urban communes, and the activists that formed them, this volume utilizes newly uncovered archival materials to chart the rise and fall of this revolutionary impulse. Laced with personal detail, it illuminates the thoughts and aspirations of individual activists as the idea of the urban commune grew from an experimental form of living, limited to a handful of participants in Petrograd and Moscow, into a cultural phenomenon that saw tens of thousands of youths form their own domestic united of socialist living by the end of the 1920s. This work is a tale of revolutionary aspiration, appropriation, and participation at the ground level. never officially sanctioned by the party, the urban communes challenge our traditional understanding of the early Soviet state, presenting Soviet ideology as something that could both frame and fire the imagination.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: List of illustrations; title: Acronyms in archival citations; title: A note on names and transliteration. Introduction : making their revolution; title: Revolutionary beginnings; title: Socialism in one dormitory : student communes; title: Socialism in one apartment : Byt communes; title: Socialism in one factory : production communes; title: Early Stalinism and the urban communes; title: Conclusion : the commune is dead, vive le communard!.