Soviet Mass Festivals, 1917–1991

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SOVIET MASS FESTIVALS, 1917–1991 • Malte Rolf Translated by Cynthia Klohr RUSSIAN HISTORY Praise for the German edition “In his innovative and stimulating book, Malte Rolf explores with subtlety and insight the complex and contested processes of festivities, festivals, and parades through which the Communist Party and the Soviet state tried to legitimize themselves. It adds much to our knowledge of the cultural history of the Stalinist period in general and marks a welcome departure in scholarship on Soviet festivals and celebrations in particular.” —Russian Review “Innovative and well-written . . . should interest scholars of the Soviet Union and of other state socialist societies as well as those exploring the role of festivals and choreographed displays of power in nonsocialist societies.”—Slavic Review “A brilliant analysis of the way mass celebrations were designed, planned, and orchestrated by the party center and then transformed, modified, and reinterpreted on the peripheries of the Soviet Union. . . . Rolf closes his narrative with a comparative assessment of rituals and celebrations in twentieth-century regimes (fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union) and in the United States in the 1930s. Many readers will find this part of the book most useful, as it is one of the rare attempts to portray socialist, Nazi, fascist, and democratic rituals in contrast to one another.”—Kritika Mass festivals were a trademark of twentieth-century authoritarianism, as seen in fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and elsewhere. But nowhere was this phenomenon more prevalent than in the Soviet Union. Despite being a dominant feature of Soviet culture, public spectacles in the USSR have been largely overlooked as objects of study by historians. Originally published in German, Malte Rolf’s highly acclaimed work examines the creation and perpetuation of large-scale celebrations such as May Day, the anniversary of the October Revolution, Harvest Day, and others throughout the Soviet era. He chronicles the overt political agendas, public displays of power, forced participation, and widespread use of these events in the Soviet drive to eradicate existing cultural norms and replace them with new icons of Soviet ideology. Rolf shows how the new Red Calendar became an essential tool in redefining celebrations in the Soviet Union, and how its legacy became ingrained in post-Soviet memory. Malte Rolf is professor of history at the University of Bamberg, Germany. He is the recipient of the Klaus Mehnert Award from the German Society for East European Studies, the 2008 Geisteswissenschaften Award, and the University of Tübingen’s doctoral thesis award. Cynthia Klohr taught at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and has translated books in philosophy, psychology, the history and theory of science, human rights, music, and cultural history. Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies University of Pittsburgh Press www.upress.pitt.edu Cover art: S. M. Kirov Inspects the Sports Parade, by Alexander Samokhvalov (1935).© State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. / Cover design: Ann Walston 9 7 8 0 8 2 2 9 6 2 3 9 7 ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-6239-7 ISBN 10: 0-8229-6239-X Rolf • SOVIET MASS FESTIVALS, 1917–1991 • Pittsburgh ...