Cover art: MOSCOW - January 28, 2007. A visitor views “Revolution Perestroika?” by Russian painter Erik Bulatov at an exhibition for potential buyers and art experts of Sotheby‘s January 28, 2007, in Moscow. The auction, completely devoted to the Russian art of the XX-XXI centuries, took place in London on February 15, 2007. The lot sold at 198,000 GBP. The Sotheby‘s catalogue note described Bulatov and his work as follows: One of the most prominent aspects of Bulatov‘s art is the superimposition of text on illusionistic space and realistic representations, as can be seen in Revolution-Perestroika. The presence of text in this work evokes immediate associations with Soviet propaganda posters and banners, and alludes to the government‘s oppressive power over society. As Bulatov has explained, “Soviet ideology completely distorted our whole life. And this distorted space, full of ideology, became ordinary, customary and normal… Therefore, in my pictures, I tried to show that this kind of normality is not normal.‘ Another notable feature of Revolution-Perestroika is the tension between geometric and realistic imagery. An idealized architectural vista leads to the podium that contains a statue of Lenin, marking the transition between real, tangible existence and the visionary realm beyond. In the post-revolutionary era, a massive restructuring of society took place, accompanied by a burgeoning optimism. People were full of hope about a spiritual and material reconstruction that would affect the whole world. While Lenin dominates the compositional center of Revolution-Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, another Soviet leader who also sought to change Soviet society, introducing his policies of glasnost and perestroika in 1986, intrudes very little upon the picture. Gorbachev‘s image obscures the slogan at bottom in such a way that the word perestroika (restructuring) is seen not in the noun form but as the imperative perestroi (restructure). (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Epsilon/Getty Images)
Reflections Symposium Response
A Response to Commentators
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 429-430
-
- Article
- Export citation
Review Essays
Legacies, Memories, and Consequences of European Communism’s Collapse
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 431-436
-
- Article
- Export citation
Beyond Gender Politics? Mainstreaming the Study of Sex Work
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 437-445
-
- Article
- Export citation
A Model Discipline, and How “Good Work” Hurts Political Science
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 446-448
-
- Article
- Export citation
Applying the Ethics of War and Peace: A Military Perspective
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 449-454
-
- Article
- Export citation
Review Symposia: The Political Consequences of Majority Rule
A discussion of Melissa Schwartzberg's Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of Supermajority Rule
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 455-457
-
- Article
- Export citation
A discussion of Melissa Schwartzberg's Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of Supermajority Rule
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 458-460
-
- Article
- Export citation
A discussion of Melissa Schwartzberg's Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of Supermajority Rule
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 461-462
-
- Article
- Export citation
A discussion of Melissa Schwartzberg's Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of Supermajority Rule
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 463-465
-
- Article
- Export citation
Review Symposia: Insecurity and Xenophobia
A discussion of Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager's Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 466-467
-
- Article
- Export citation
A discussion of Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager's Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 468-470
-
- Article
- Export citation
A discussion of Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager's Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 471-472
-
- Article
- Export citation
Critical Dialogues
The Civic Constitution: Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path toward Constitutional Democracy. By Elizabeth Beaumont. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 386p. $49.95
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 473-475
-
- Article
- Export citation
Response to Nadia Urbinati’s review of The Civic Constitution: Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path toward Constitutional Democracy
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 475-476
-
- Article
- Export citation
Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People. By Nadia Urbinati. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. 320 p. $39.95.
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 476-478
-
- Article
- Export citation
Response to Elizabeth Beaumont’s review of Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 478-479
-
- Article
- Export citation
Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State. By Megan Ming Francis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 208p. $80.00 cloth, $27.99 paper.
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 480-482
-
- Article
- Export citation
Response to Julie Novkov's review of Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 482-483
-
- Article
- Export citation
Statebuilding from the Margins: Between Reconstruction and the New Deal. Edited by Carol Nackenoff and Julie Novkov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. 320p. $59.95.
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 483-485
-
- Article
- Export citation
Response to Megan Ming Francis's review of Statebuilding from the Margins: Between Reconstruction and the New Deal
-
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 June 2015, pp. 485-486
-
- Article
- Export citation