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  3. Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics
  • Cited by 56
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      11 April 2011
      24 March 2011
      ISBN:
      9780511791437
      9781107004542
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791437
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.66kg, 364 Pages
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      • Subjects:
      Area Studies, Russian and East European Government, Politics and Policy, History, European Studies, Politics and International Relations, Russian and East European History
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    Subjects:
    Area Studies, Russian and East European Government, Politics and Policy, History, European Studies, Politics and International Relations, Russian and East European History
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    Book description

    Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics analyses the way in which Soviet symbolism and ritual changed from the regime's birth in 1917 to its fall in 1991. Graeme Gill focuses on the symbolism in party policy and leaders' speeches, artwork and political posters, and urban redevelopment, and on ritual in the political system. He shows how this symbolism and ritual were worked into a dominant metanarrative which underpinned Soviet political development. Gill also shows how, in each of these spheres, the images changed both over the life of the regime and during particular stages: the Leninist era metanarrative differed from that of the Stalin period, which differed from that of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods, which was, in turn, changed significantly under Gorbachev. In charting this development, the book lays bare the dynamics of the Soviet regime and a major reason for its fall.

    Reviews

    ‘A fascinating and thoroughly-researched interpretation of Soviet history. Gill compellingly shows how the political language and symbols of the regime, which long helped to sustain it, ultimately left it defenceless to fresh thinking’.

    Archie Brown - author of The Rise and Fall of Communism

    ‘Exhaustively documented and judiciously argued, Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics cements Graeme Gill's reputation as a leading student and interpreter of the Soviet epoch’.

    Michael Urban - University of California, Santa Cruz

    ‘Graeme Gill’s fascinating study of what he calls the Soviet metanarrative revisits a number of Soviet myths from different periods, and forces us to look at them in a new and very different light. This original, thoroughly researched book is a must read for anyone interested in Soviet legitimation, mythology, ideology, symbolism and political ritual.'

    Leslie Holmes - Professor of Political Science, University of Melbourne

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