Self and Story in Russian History

Laura Engelstein and Stephanie Sandler, eds. Self and Story in Russian History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. ix, 363 pp. Illustrations. Index. $52.50, cloth. $22.50, paper. The fifteen papers in this original collection emerged from a 1996 interdisciplinary working conference on self and story, organized to create a forum for discussion among historians and literary scholars about "the ideas of identity, self-creation, and narrative" throughout modem Russian history. The resulting volume has something for everyone. As is always the case with this type of compilation, readers may choose to read only those articles of immediate interest. For those ambitious enough to tackle the whole, an excellent introduction by Laura Engelstein and Stephanie Sandier helps to unify the diverse contributions. Paying particular attention to their chosen theme, the editors go to great lengths to illustrate how each piece fits into the larger historical and philosophical context. Indeed, this is a necessary exercise as some papers are more successful than others at portraying the ideas of self and story; moreover, not everyone has chosen to focus on the philosophical questions raised in the introduction. The essays are presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with the Soviet period and ending with the eighteenth century. The purpose of this unconventional approach is to show how "current concerns shape our vision of what we leave behind; how an ever-unfolding present produces a continuously rewritten past." An unfortunate choice to lead off the collection is Caryl Emerson's piece on Bakhtin, Lotman, Vygotsky, and Lydia Ginzburg. Of all the selections, this is arguably the least accessible to the non-specialist, and may scare some readers away. While the author makes some interesting comparisons-Bakhtin and Ginzburg are united in their appreciation of "verbal consciousness and its manipulation," Vygotsky and Lotman for their dependence upon signs-the nuances of the discussion will be lost on those not familiar with the subject. The next two articles, Alexander Zholkovsky's essay on the poet Anna Akhmatova, and Jochen Hellbeck's work on the playwright Alexander Afinogenov, are more effective at getting across the theme of "self." Zholkovsky describes the poet as obsessed with her own self-image, in fact, directing her own biography. Using Afinogenov's diary from 1937, Hellbeck convincingly argues that the purges were part of a process of revolutionary purification pursued by both the Soviet state and individuals. The playwright himself compared his transformation to a religious conversion. The atypical portraits presented in these first three articles accentuate the complexity of the Soviet cultural "collective." Richard Wortman's contribution is particularly suited to this forum. Focusing on the 1913 publicity campaign of Nicholas II, he demonstrates how the Emperor's insistence on opening his life to public scrutiny demeaned his image. Wortman's descriptions of the cheap souvenirs, coins and stamps produced for the tercentenary are amusing; devout postmasters refused to cancel stamps so as not to desecrate the face of the tsar. Most fascinating is his lengthy discussion of Nicholas' embellished official biography. Despite its depiction of an almost superhuman monarch, the inclusion of details about the daily life of the tsar serve to undermine the mythology. Louise McReynolds and Susan Larsen examine, respectively, female heroines as depicted in Evgenii Bauer's film melodramas and in the popular children's books of Lydia Charskaia. In both cases, the audience is encouraged to redefine self-image, either by identifying with fictional characters, or by rethinking their own positions in society. Larsen's reliance on the voices of young readers themselves (their numerous letters to the popular children's journal, The Soulful Word) to determine the impact of Charskaia's "pernicious trash" on her audience is particularly effective. …