Political Humor under Stalin: An Anthology of Unofficial Jokes and Anecdotes

The Revolution, Civil War and "War Communism"

The Revolution, Civil War and "War Communism" In February 1917, the Romanov dynasty was swept from power by popular protest from below and elite intrigue from above. A series of clumsy and ineffective provisional governments followed-the infamous "dual power" arrangement-which accomplished little aside from compromising the credibility of liberal politicians and moderate socialists alike. Only the Bolsheviks retained their revolutionary credentials by refusing to participate in these temporary political alliances. As a result, by the time the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, they had become one of the most popular parties in revolutionary Russia. Of course, consolidating power proved to be no easier for the Bolsheviks than for their rivals. Harkening back to the French Revolution of 1789, these Russian Jacobins saw the threat of counterrevolution everywhere. This was compounded in early 1918 by the collapse of an ad hoc Bolshevik coalition with other socialist radicals, which led Lenin and his entourage to become as nervous about the socialist left as the "bourgeois" right. By the end of that year, the Bolsheviks had been forced to resort to the use of political terror against their rivals, enforced by their own secret police organization, the Cheka. A civil war quickly ensued, which ravaged the lands of the former Russian empire until 1921. These dramatic events are described in the political humor of the Stalin era in surprisingly vague terms, perhaps because many of the burning issues of the revolutionary period had faded from popular memory and disappeared from textbooks by the mid-1930s1 Defeated opponents were remembered only by their Bolshevik monikers (the "Whites"), while slogans like "Workers of the World, Unite!" had developed a largely cynical inflection. Memories of hunger in the cities between 1918 and 1921 were somewhat 1 Traces of the political humor of the revolution, civil war, and 1920s are present in Allekdoty pro tsaria Nikolaia dikaria 110 zlobu dl1ia (Petrograd; n.p., 1918); "Sovetskie anekdoty ," Volia Rossii, no. 2 (1925): 50-62; Sovetskie al1ekdoty; Shilts, Ol1evl1ik "Velikogo pereloma ," passim; Lyons, Moscow Carousel, 321-40; S. Karachevtsev, ed., Olia I"kllriashchikh ! Allekdoty (Riga; Kn-vo "Mir," [19317]), 130-53; Nataliia Sokolova, "Strana moego detstva: Literaturno-teatral'nyi iumor 20-kh godov," Voprosy literatury, no. 4 (1995): 354-68; idem, "V zerkale smekha; Literaturno-teatral'nyi iumor pervoi poloviny 30-kh godov," Voprosy literatuIY, no. 3 (1996): 362-75; idem, "Iz starykh tetradei, 1935-1937," Voprosy literatury, no. 2 (1997); 345-64. 30 PO LITICAL H UMOR UNDER STALI N more vivid, particularly in regard to the collapse of communal services that accompanied the Bolsheviks' experiment with "War Communism." Most eyecatching is the fact that jokesters of the 1930s frequently described the party ranks in 1917 as dominated by outsiders-particularly Jews-undermining one of the most sacred myths surrounding the homegrown nature of the Russian revolution. FIGURE 7. Lenin addressing a rally on Theater Square in Moscow OpaTOp Ha Ml1Tl1Hre B1917 roAY: - TOBapl1lQl1, 300 AeT H aM AI1Jll1 nOMOl1 Ha rOADny, a MbJ MOAl.JaAl1! flo pa OTKpblTb pOT ! A speaker declares at a rally in 1917: -Comrades, for 300 years they've poured dishwater over our heads and we've remained silent. It's time to open our mouths!2 2 For a variant, see Karachevtsev, Dlia l1ektlriashchikh, 146. THE REVOLUTION, CIVIL WAR AND "WAR COMMUNISM" 31 Anoe pa 3fOBapl1BaloT: - 8 p enOAIOQl111 B POCCI111 Bl1HonaTbl enp eI1 11 ne AOCl1n eA,l1CTbl. - ITo4eMY neAOCl1neAl1CTLI? KOMl1ccapa crrpawl1BaloT, KaKaJI pa3HMl1a Me>KAY qK M lJ,K.«qK - 3TO q eHTpaAbHbIM KOMl1TeT, a l.\K -3TO U;pe3Bbl~ai1HaJi KOMl1CCI1JI ». [ocrrOAh Ear 33 MeTl1A, l.lTO B POCCl111 T BOPl1T OI 4TO-TO H eAa,tl.Hoe. TIoc.ll a.lll1 Mcyca XpMcTa Bbl51 CHl1Tb, B 1.J.eM AeAO. ITpoxoAMT MHoro npeMeHI1 - MMCYC He B03Spa1ltaeTOI. [ocnOA,b nOChlAaeT aHfeA3 pa 3blCKaTb XpI1CTa. AHreA B03Bpaw.aeTOI C 3anl1CKoi1::«BeAyT H3 Aonpae. ApecronaH. XPl1CTOO>. [oenoAL nOCblAaeT Ha Bblp),,-!KY l1.11bl0ITpopOKa . TOT TaK)I(e He B03Bpaw.aeTOr. ITocAaHHbll1 3HfeA CHona npl1HOCl1T 3anl1CKY:«CJiDKy M.H. TIpOpOK MAbJl », TOf,d,a, t.ITo6bl pacnYTaTb Bee 3TO AeAO, [oenOAb rrOCbIAaeT MOl1Ce5I. O T Toro CKOPO rrpMxoAMT TeAerpaMMa:«)KMB, 3AOpOB. HapKoM O eTpOB». Two people are talking on the street: - Jews and bicyclists are to blame for the Russian revolution. - Why the bicylists?3 A commissar is asked what the difference is between the ChK and the TsK. -ChK is the Chentral Committee and TsK is...