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Examining Committee University of Alberta Perfect Calendars in Chaotic Times by Irina Shilova A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies ©Irina Shilova Fall 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Examining Committee Jelena Pogosjan, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Nicholas Zekulin, Germanic, Slavic and East Asian Studies, University of Calgary Andriy Nahachewsky, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Alla Nedashkivska, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Fred Judson, Political Science Serhy Yekelchyk, Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Victoria Abstract This dissertation focuses on the literary and media texts pertaining to the calendar reform introduced by the Bolshevik government after the October Revolution in 1917, and the establishment of specifically Soviet calendar in 1917-1929. The careful examination of the texts reveals a particularly salient feature of the new calendar, namely, its chaotic nature. Drawing on Paul Recoeur’s theory of narrative as an exclusively human method of comprehending reality, this study investigates the phenomenon of calendrical narrative in its social and private aspects. Chapter 1 reconstructs the political and ideological context of the historical period employing materials from the two leading Soviet newspapers, Pravda and Izvestiia, and, more specifically, those articles which promote the new Soviet vision of holidays and the ritual calendar as a whole. Chapter 2 deals with Vladimir Mayakovsky’s vision of time as man’s enemy and his construction of a “perfect” calendar for the future. Chapter 3 examines Mikhail Bulgakov’s interpretation of the Christian ritual calendar as a message to ordinary people explaining the moral virtues of Christ, as well as those literary devices he employed highlighting the importance of this message to society and the individual. Acknowledgments I am grateful to Jelena Pogosjan for her guidance, wonderful insights and constant help during the writing my thesis. I am endlessly thankful to Nicholas Zekulin for his support and stimulating discussions concerning the topics of my investigation. And I also wish to thank my family for encouragement and help. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter I. The Chaotic Nature of the Bolshevik Calendar 25 1. The Bolshevik Reform: Definite Goals and Thoughtless Means 25 2. Prazdniki with Various Meanings 45 Chapter II. Calendar, Time and Immortality in Mayakovsky’s Works 80 1. Time and the Future in the works of the Futurists and Mayakovsky 81 2. Traditional Prazdniki as Obstacles to a Wonderful Life 108 3. Mayakovsky's “Perfect” Calendar for the Future 138 Chapter III. Bulgakov’s “Perfect” Calendar as a Reminder of Moral Virtues 152 1. Truth in Literature and the “True Calendar” 157 2. Christ’s Life Story as a Message of Moral Law 165 3. Unifying Temporal Plot 189 Conclusion 209 Illustrations 215 Works Cited 220 Works Consulted 240 List of Illustrations 1. Календарь коммуниста на 1929 год (Calendar of a Communist for 1929). Content page 215 2. Month of February in Календарь Русской революции (Calendar of the Russian Revolution) 216 3. Календарь коммуниста на 1931 год (Calendar of a Communist for 1931). Page with working schedule 217 4. V. Tatlin. Memorial of the Third International 218 5. M. Rodchenko’s illustration to the first edition of V. Mayakovsky’s poem Про это. Photomontage. 1923 219 Introduction Calendars are bound to time and are, as clocks, an instrument of its measurement. The social sciences distinguish between two types of time: natural (cosmic, or universal) time, and lived time. Paul Ricoeur provides a useful explanation of the human perception of time: “Time becomes human time to the extent that it is organized after the manner of a narrative” (V. 2, 3). Calendars, in other words, lead to an appropriation of the mystic nature of time in people’s daily life by “explaining” it in the form of a story. In order to make time more “livable,” society creates stories with agents who act on the special days of the year; their actions therefore are bound by time. Society, then, lives in parallel with these stories and organizes social order according to these special days. The lives of Christ, or Mohammed, the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, and many other narratives have all been placed within the context of the calendars of different societies and different historical periods. The chain of special celebratory days forms the calendar narrative, one of major narratives regulating societal and individual existence. Ricoeur positions the calendar between the two kinds of time which mankind has to deal with: [T]he unique way in which history responds to the aporias of the phenomenology of time consists in the elaboration of a third time -- properly historical time -- which mediates between lived time and cosmic time. To demonstrate this thesis, we shall call on the procedures of 1 connection, borrowed from historical practice itself, that assure the reinscription of lived time on cosmic time: the calendar, the succession of generations, archives, documents, and traces (V. 3, 99). This theory explains why the calendar is turned into a place inhabited by characters and why it represents the stories of their lives. It also suggests an image of the calendar as a two-faced Janus whose rational, counting face looks at cosmic time, while its human, perceptive face looks at everyday, human existence. The human face of the calendar is a narrative, solely man’s invention. Calendars can be of different origins and functions, ranging from calendars of various religions and states to those of different social groups and private calendars.1 The official state calendar of any country is the most institutionalized and publicized calendar, however. State calendars in particular provide the citizens of the state with a grand narrative, according to which the political regime expects people to live and in which it expects them to believe. J. M. Bernstein characterizes the grand narratives (or meta-narratives) as “second- order narratives which seek to narratively articulate and legitimate some concrete first-order practices and narratives” (102).2 Calendars penetrate all levels of life in a society, as well as the private life of every individual, in many ways governing their political, cultural and private actions. Although it may seem very sketchy, the calendar narrative provides a 1 I use the term “private” instead of “personal” following Sania Perovic’s usage of this term in her unpublished dissertation “Untamable Time: A Literary and Historical Panorama of the French Revolutionary Calendar (1792-1805).” 2 Jean-François Lyotard defines the postmodern condition “as incredulity toward metanarratives” (23). Lyotard, however, does not reject grand narratives altogether, but rather points to man’s greater possibility in postmodernity to choose among many narratives which govern his life. 2 great number of practical implications in the form of rituals, often very elaborate. The calendrical grand narrative reveals itself to some extent through the means of time-counting which depends mostly on the predominant religion of the state. It is represented, for example, in the number of months in a year or days in a week, or the day of starting the year according to religious belief. The greater imposition of the calendrical grand narrative on the state population happens through the system of ritual days which reinforces the moral, social and political values that the state defines as a basis for sustaining normal existence.3 These special days construct the narrative which directs the daily life of citizens and becomes their primary instrument for understanding events, circumstances, human actions and the world in general. An official calendar has the status of law, but initially any state calendar is the product of the individual endeavors of scientists, priests, or political rulers who measure universal time and appropriate it for the everyday life of society. Therefore, every particular state calendar contains, at some originating moment, a very private element of the individual(s), who believed that it was the perfect calendar for use in their society and who had enough power to impose this calendar over their people. When the Bolsheviks launched the calendar reform after the October Revolution of 1917 aimed at building a new calendar for a new socialist country, they followed to some extent the same traditional route. The unique feature of this reform, however, was its hectic introduction leading to the creation of a 3 See Etzioni 3. 3 chaotic state calendar which defined the social life of the country for the first decade following the Revolution. This reform meant a change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The political reasons for this change, however, were more imperative. The Bolsheviks hoped to create a rupture between the Old and New epochs. They wanted to undermine the Russian Orthodox Church by confusing the dates of religious festivities with the dates of the new calendar. The Church had not accepted the new calendar and continues to use the Julian calendar even to this day.4 The Bolsheviks also began to aggressively impose a new concept of time on people.
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