Utopian Reality Russian History and Culture
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Utopian Reality Russian History and Culture Editors-in-Chief Jeffrey P. Brooks The Johns Hopkins University Christina Lodder University of Kent VOLUME 14 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rhc Utopian Reality Reconstructing Culture in Revolutionary Russia and Beyond Edited by Christina Lodder Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva LEIDEn • BOSTON 2013 Cover illustration: Staircase in the residential building for members of the Cheka (the Secret Police), Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), 1929–1936, designed by Ivan Antonov, Veniamin Sokolov and Arsenii Tumbasov. Photograph Richard Pare. © Richard Pare. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Utopian reality : reconstructing culture in revolutionary Russia and beyond / edited by Christina Lodder, Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva. pages cm. — (Russian history and culture, ISSN 1877-7791; volume 14) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-26320-8 (hardback : acid-free paper)—ISBN 978-90-04-26322-2 (e-book) 1. Soviet Union—Intellectual life—1917–1970. 2. Utopias—Soviet Union—History. 3. Utopias in literature. 4. Utopias in art. 5. Arts, Soviet—History. 6. Avant-garde (Aesthetics)—Soviet Union—History. 7. Cultural pluralism—Soviet Union—History. 8. Visual communication— Soviet Union—History. 9. Politics and culture—Soviet Union—History 10. Soviet Union— Politics and government—1917–1936. I. Lodder, Christina, 1948– II. Kokkori, Maria. III. Mileeva, Maria. DK266.4.U86 2013 947.084–dc23 2013034913 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1877-7791 ISBN 978-90-04-26320-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26322-2 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List of Illustrations .......................................................................................... vii Notes on Contributors ................................................................................... xvii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xxiii Introduction. Utopia and Dystopia: The Impulse of History Christina Lodder, Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva ...................... 1 1..Dreaming of the City: Mikhail Larionov’s Provincial Dandy 1907 ................................................................................................................ 9 John Milner 2. Utopian Sex: The Metamorphosis of Androgynous Imagery in Russian Art of the Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Period ................ 25 Natalia Budanova 3..The Soviet Icarus: From the Dream of Free Flight to the .Nightmare of Free Fall ............................................................................. 43 Maria Tsantsanoglou 4..Theo van Doesburg and Russia: Utopia Thwarted .......................... 57 Nicholas Bueno de Mesquita 5. Fighting for a Utopian Childhood: Militarism in Children’s Periodicals of the Early Soviet Union ................................................. 79 Maria Starkova-Vindman 6..Spectral Geographies in Russian Émigré Prose: The Cases of Petr Krasnov and Georgii Peskov ......................................................... 99 Muireann Maguire 7..Twice Removed: Pavel Filonov and Nikolai Glebov-Putilovskii ..................................................................................... 113 Nicoletta Misler 8. Exhibiting Malevich under Stalin ......................................................... 133 Maria Kokkori vi contents 9..Solomon Nikritin: The Old and the New ........................................... 153 John E. Bowlt 10..The Ghost in the Machine: The Modernist Architectural Utopia under Stalin ............................................................................................... 169 Christina Lodder 11..Socialist Realism and Stasis .................................................................. 193 Evgeny Dobrenko 12. Utopia in Retreat: The Closure of the State Museum of New Western Art in 1948 ................................................................................ 203 Maria Mileeva 13..The Art of Cybernetic Communism .................................................. 219 David Crowley 14. Geometry after Utopia ........................................................................... 239 Brandon Taylor Index ................................................................................................................... 255 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS John Milner 1.1 Mikhail Larionov, Provincial Dandy, 1907, oil on canvas, 100 × 89 cm., State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow .......................... 10 1.2 Mikhail Larionov, Walk in a Provincial Town, 1907, oil on canvas, 47 × 91 cm., State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow .............. 11 1.3 Édouard Manet, La Viennoise: Portrait d’Irma Brunner, 1882, pastel on paper, 53.5 × 44.1 cm., Musée d’Orsay, Paris ............. 15 1.4 Mikhail Larionov, Spring, 1912–13, oil on canvas, 86.5 × 68.2 cm., Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris ................................................................................... 17 1.5.Natalia Goncharova with painted face and profile, Moscow 1913. This photograph was first reproduced in the journal Teatr v karikaturakh (Moscow), no. 3 (9 September 1913), p. 9. Photograph courtesy of A Legacy Regained: Nikolai Khardzhiev and the Russian Avant-Garde (St Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2002), p. 104 ............................................................ 19 1.6.Natalia Goncharova, Linen, 1913, oil on canvas, 89 × 70 cm., .Tate, London ......................................................................................... 19 1.7 David Burliuk posing for a photograph in New York, 1920s. Collection of Mary Holt Burliuk. Courtesy of The Ukrainian Museum, New York ............................................................................. 23 Natalia Budanova 2.1 Prospectus, after George Barbier poster, Clotilde & Alexandre Sakharoff, 1921. Reproduced courtesy of Franc-Manuel Peter and Rainer Stamm, eds., Die Sacharoffs: Zwei Tänzer aus dem Umkreis des Blauen Reiters: Two Dancers within the Blaue Reiter Circle (Cologne: Wienand Verlag, 2002) ........................... 34 2.2 El Lissitzky, Russian Exhibition, Zurich, 1929, lithograph poster, 127 × 90 cm. ............................................................................. 37 2.3 Vera Mukhina, model for The Male Worker and Female Collective Farmer, 1937, bronze, 158 × 113 × 110 cm., State .Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow ............................................................... 41 viii list of illustrations Maria Tsantsanoglou 3.1 Vladimir Tatlin, Sketch plan of Letatlin, 1929–32, pencil on paper, A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow .............................................................................. 44 3.2 Natalia Goncharova, Angels and Aeroplanes, lithograph, 32.7 × 24 cm., from the portfolio of 14 lithographs Mystical Images of War (Moscow, 1914) ....................................................... 49 3.3 Kazimir Malevich, Aeroplane Flying, 1915, oil on canvas, 57.3 × 47.3 cm., Museum of Modern Art, New York ................ 50 3.4 Konstantin Iuon, People of the Future, 1929, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, 66.5 × 100 cm., Tver Regional Art Gallery, Tver ......................................................................................... 50 3.5 Aleksandr Deineka, Nikitka The First Russian Flyer, 1940, oil on canvas, 397 × 294 cm., State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow ................................................................................................. 52 3.6 Gelii Korzhev, Egorka the Flyer, 1976–1980, oil on canvas, 200 × 280 cm., State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow ...................... 55 Nicholas Bueno de Mesquita 4.1a Theo van Doesburg, A study for the painting Rhythm of a Russian Dance, c.1918, pencil, pen and ink on paper, 7.6 × 5.3 cm., Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Photo SCALA Florence ................................................................ 62 4.1b Theo van Doesburg, A study for the painting Rhythm of a Russian Dance, c.1918, pencil, pen and ink on paper, 8.0 × 6.4 cm., Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Photo SCALA Florence ................................................................ 62 4.2 Theo van Doesburg, Rhythm of a Russian Dance, c.1918, oil on canvas, 135.9 × 51.6 cm., Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Photo SCALA Florence ........................................... 63 4.3 Theo van Doesburg’s Rhythm of a Russian Dance with an unknown figure, date unknown, De Stijl archive of the RKD, Den Haag .............................................................................................