- 418 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Oleg Kharkhordin has constructed a compelling, subtle, and complex genealogy of the Soviet individual that is as much about Michel Foucault as it is about Russia. Examining the period from the Russian Revolution to the fall of Gorbachev, Kharkhordin demonstrates that Party ritualsâwhich forced each Communist to reflect intensely and repeatedly on his or her "self, " an entirely novel experience for many of themâhad their antecedents in the Orthodox Christian practices of doing penance in the public gaze. Individualization in Soviet Russia occurred through the intensification of these public penitential practices rather than the private confessional practices that are characteristic of Western Christianity. He also finds that objectification of the individual in Russia relied on practices of mutual surveillance among peers, rather than on the hierarchical surveillance of subordinates by superiors that characterized the West. The implications of this book expand well beyond its brilliant analysis of the connection between Bolshevism and Eastern Orthodoxy to shed light on many questions about the nature of Russian society and culture.
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Table of contents
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- 1 . INTRODUCTION: INDIVIDUALISM AND THE STUDY OF PRACTICES
- 2. REVEAL, ADMONISH, EXCOMMUNICATE: ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS AND THE CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISSION
- 3 . A "TECHNOLOGY OF NO MERCY": THE COLLECTIVE AS AN OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION
- 4. PURGE AND SELF-CRITICISM: THE COLLECTIVE AS A SUBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION
- 5. REVEALING THE SELF: THE INDIVIDUAL AS AN OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION
- 6. WORKING ON ONESELF: THE INDIVIDUAL AS A SUBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION
- 7. THE COLLECTIVE IN MATURE SOVIET SOCIETY
- 8. THE INDIVIDUAL IN MATURE SOVIET SOCIETY
- 9. CONCLUSION
- Bibliography
- Index