Re: [xmca] Krementsov, N. (1997). Stalinist science

[Anton Yasnitsky <the_yasya@yahoo.com>]

I do not know anything about this specific book, but would definitely be suspicious about any attempt to recast the history of Russian Revolution in terms of "tragedy". Quite popular during the Cold War (in the West) or perestroika (back in the USSR), such black and white narrative tends to look fairly simplistic and helpless these days, especially since a great deal of fairly balanced and unbiased scholarly works came out.


I guess of primary interest to us here, in this online community, is the history of Soviet science in its social and cultural context. To those interested, I would strongly recommend Nikolai Krementsov's "Stalinist Science" (Princeton, 1997) that equally well serves as an introductory and pretty advanced reading on the topic of Russian/Soviet science of the first half of 20th century. Very good comprehensive treatise that goes far beyond dated and naive narrative about the "oppressed science", which, as a matter of fact, is the dominant axiomatic standpoint among the so-called historians of Soviet psychology back in Russia these days.  The book is currently out of print, but can be easily found on abebooks.com or barnesandnoble.com . A little bit expensive, but definitely a classic one.





________________________________
 From: Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>; " (pazaroff2001@yahoo.com)" <pazaroff2001@yahoo.com> 
Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2012 5:55:04 PM
Subject: [xmca] A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
 
To fill in one of the many gaps in my historical knowledge, I've ordered "A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924" by Orlando Figes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/014024364X/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2C_SC_dp_1

Does anyone know anything about this account of the revolution? The one I recently saw on PBS really sounded like US propaganda. So I'd like to know if the Bolsheviks got off to a more positive start than was suggested by that documentary, as they call them.
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca