Download PDF Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik SelfPortraits Annals of Communism Series Alexander Vatlin Larisa Malashenko Vadim A Staklo Simon Sebag Montefiore 9780300108491 Books
Download As PDF : Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik SelfPortraits Annals of Communism Series Alexander Vatlin Larisa Malashenko Vadim A Staklo Simon Sebag Montefiore 9780300108491 Books
What did the rulers of the Soviet Union truly think about each other? Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution provides a window onto the soul of Bolshevism no other set of materials has ever offered. Sketching on notebook pages, official letterheads, and the margins of draft documents, prominent Soviet leaders in the 1920s and 1930s amused themselves and their colleagues with drawings of one another. Nearly 200 of these informal sketches, only recently uncovered in secret Soviet files are reproduced here. Funny, original, spontaneous, sometimes vicious or grotesque, the drawings and their accompanying notes reveal the relationships and mindsets of the Bolshevik bosses at the time of Stalin’s rise to power with blazing immediacy.
The album’s editors select characteristic drawings by such prominent leaders as Nikolai Bukharin, who depicts himself as “piggy foxy,†Valery Mezhlauk, and Stalin himself, whose trademark blue pencil appears on several of the drawings. A number of sketches of unknown authorship are also included. The editors identify the political issues, events, and discussions that inspired the drawings, and they provide biographical information about the people who drew and were drawn. The book opens a rare window on Stalin’s inner circle, allowing us access to the powerful men who, despite living in a humorless epoch, developed a special humor of their own.
The album’s editors select characteristic drawings by such prominent leaders as Nikolai Bukharin, who depicts himself as “piggy foxy,†Valery Mezhlauk, and Stalin himself, whose trademark blue pencil appears on several of the drawings. A number of sketches of unknown authorship are also included. The editors identify the political issues, events, and discussions that inspired the drawings, and they provide biographical information about the people who drew and were drawn. The book opens a rare window on Stalin’s inner circle, allowing us access to the powerful men who, despite living in a humorless epoch, developed a special humor of their own.
Download PDF Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik SelfPortraits Annals of Communism Series Alexander Vatlin Larisa Malashenko Vadim A Staklo Simon Sebag Montefiore 9780300108491 Books
"Like other Annals of Communism books, Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution is for the serious students of the history of Russian communism. It shows us the lighter side of the `comrades'; the kind of jests they used to play on each other, particularly in making caricatures. This book is a collection of these caricatures and portraits. It mostly describes the period before the Great Terror, before the iron regime of Stalin stifled all intellectual imagination. Most prominently it features the wit and art of Bukharin, the man who, according to Solzhenitsyn, was capable of stemming the bloody run of the Communists in Russia. Another prominent artist, not active in politics, is Alexander Vatlin.
As a student of Stalinist history, it came to me as a surprise that humor was still possible under the dictatorship of the proletariat. This book shows that even under extreme duress, human creativity breaks out in the most unexpected of places. While describing the underlying brutality of the Communist regime, these caricatures prove the basic premise of Communism wrong: it shows that social engineering is impossible; man can never be bound into ideologies.
The introduction by Simon Sebag Montefiore is very interesting and necessary for going through the portraits and caricatures.
This is not a book to be read in both literal and symbolic sense. The portraits cannot be leafed through at one go. One has to absorb the history underlying these portraits over a period of time, while studying other historical works and contemplating over the life of Communist Russia. Not a volume to be studied in isolation but very useful for those who are deep in the history of Russian communism."
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Tags : Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik Self-Portraits (Annals of Communism Series) [Alexander Vatlin, Larisa Malashenko, Vadim A. Staklo, Simon Sebag Montefiore] on . <DIV>What did the rulers of the Soviet Union truly think about each other? <I>Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution</I> provides a window onto the soul of Bolshevism no other set of materials has ever offered. Sketching on notebook pages,Alexander Vatlin, Larisa Malashenko, Vadim A. Staklo, Simon Sebag Montefiore,Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik Self-Portraits (Annals of Communism Series),Yale University Press,0300108494,Europe - Russia The Former Soviet Union,Political Ideologies - Communism, Post-Communism Socialism,Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe),Politicians - Soviet Union,Politicians;Soviet Union;Caricatures and cartoons.,Soviet Union - Politics and government - 1917-1936,Soviet Union;Politics and government;1917-1936;Caricatures and cartoons.,Vseso'iuzna'ia kommunisticheska'ia parti'ia (bolshevikov),Vsesoeiiuznaeiia kommunisticheskaeiia partieiia (bolshevikov) (1925-1952),1917-1936,Art/Russia Former Soviet Union,Art/Subjects Themes - General,Art/Techniques - Drawing,Caricatures and cartoons,HISTORY / General,HISTORY / Russia the Former Soviet Union,History,History - General History,History World,POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism Socialism,Politicians,Politics and government,Russia Former Soviet Union,Soviet Union,Subjects Themes - General,Vsesoëiìuznaëiìa kommunisticheskaëiìa partiëiìa (bol§shevikov),Art/Russia Former Soviet Union,Art/Subjects Themes - General,Art/Techniques - Drawing,HISTORY / General,HISTORY / Russia the Former Soviet Union,POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism Socialism,Russia Former Soviet Union,Subjects Themes - General,History - General History,1917-1936,Caricatures and cartoons,Politicians,Politics and government,Soviet Union,Vsesoëiìuznaëiìa kommunisticheskaëiìa partiëiìa (bol§shevikov),History,History World
Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik SelfPortraits Annals of Communism Series Alexander Vatlin Larisa Malashenko Vadim A Staklo Simon Sebag Montefiore 9780300108491 Books Reviews :
Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution Bolshevik SelfPortraits Annals of Communism Series Alexander Vatlin Larisa Malashenko Vadim A Staklo Simon Sebag Montefiore 9780300108491 Books Reviews
- Like other Annals of Communism books, Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution is for the serious students of the history of Russian communism. It shows us the lighter side of the `comrades'; the kind of jests they used to play on each other, particularly in making caricatures. This book is a collection of these caricatures and portraits. It mostly describes the period before the Great Terror, before the iron regime of Stalin stifled all intellectual imagination. Most prominently it features the wit and art of Bukharin, the man who, according to Solzhenitsyn, was capable of stemming the bloody run of the Communists in Russia. Another prominent artist, not active in politics, is Alexander Vatlin.
As a student of Stalinist history, it came to me as a surprise that humor was still possible under the dictatorship of the proletariat. This book shows that even under extreme duress, human creativity breaks out in the most unexpected of places. While describing the underlying brutality of the Communist regime, these caricatures prove the basic premise of Communism wrong it shows that social engineering is impossible; man can never be bound into ideologies.
The introduction by Simon Sebag Montefiore is very interesting and necessary for going through the portraits and caricatures.
This is not a book to be read in both literal and symbolic sense. The portraits cannot be leafed through at one go. One has to absorb the history underlying these portraits over a period of time, while studying other historical works and contemplating over the life of Communist Russia. Not a volume to be studied in isolation but very useful for those who are deep in the history of Russian communism.
