Yvonne Howell, Nikolai Krementsov (eds.) The Art and Science of Making the New Man in Early 20th-Century Russia. London: Bloomsbury 2021. ISBN 9781350232839

 

Description

The idea that morally, mentally, and physically superior 'new men' might replace the currently existing mankind has periodically seized the imagination of intellectuals, leaders, and reformers throughout history. This volume offers a multidisciplinary investigation into how the 'new man' was made in Russia and the early Soviet Union in the first third of the 20th century.

The traditional narrative of the Soviet 'new man' as a creature forged by propaganda is challenged by the strikingly new and varied case studies presented here. The book focuses on the interplay between the rapidly developing experimental life sciences, such as biology, medicine, and psychology, and countless cultural products, ranging from film and fiction, dolls and museum exhibits to pedagogical projects, sculptures, and exemplary agricultural fairs. With contributions from scholars based in the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany and Russia, the picture that emerges is emphatically more complex, contradictory, and suggestive of strong parallels with other 'new man' visions in Europe and elsewhere. In contrast to previous interpretations that focused largely on the apparent disconnect between utopian 'new man' rhetoric and the harsh realities of everyday life in the Soviet Union, this volume brings to light the surprising historical trajectories of 'new man' visions, their often obscure origins, acclaimed and forgotten champions, unexpected and complicated results, and mutual interrelations. In short, the volume is a timely examination of a recurring theme in modern history, when dramatic advancements in science and technology conjoin with anxieties about the future to fuel dreams of a new and improved mankind.

Table of Contents

Preface

List of Illustrations

Introduction Nikolai Krementsov (University of Toronto, Canada)

Part 1 – Nurturing the New Man

1. Encyclopedic Worldbuilding: Alexander Bogdanov and the Cognitive Creation of the New Man Michael Coates (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

2. 'The RoadtoLife': Educating the New Man Lyubov Bugaeva (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia)

3. The New Man in the Nursery: Making Soviet Dolls and Regulating Children's Play in the 1920s and 30s Olga Ilyukha (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)

Part 2 – Imagining the New Man

4. New Sciences, New Worlds, and 'New Men' Nikolai Krementsov (University of Toronto, Canada)

5. Entertaining Sciences, Unlikely Horrors: The Changing Image of Man in Soviet Popular-Scientific Literary Genres Matthias Schwartz (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Germany)

6. The New Man as a Monster of Eugenic Imagination: The Criminal Brain in Mikhail Bulgakov's 'Heart of a Dog' and James Whale's Frankenstein Irina Golovacheva (St. Petersburg State University, Russia)

Part 3 – Displaying the New Man

7. 'A School of the Peasantry of the Future': Constructing the Image of a 'New Peasant' at the 1923 All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition Olga Elina (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia)

8. Revolutionary Evolution in Apes and Humans in the 1920s: Sculpture and Constructs of the New Man at the Moscow Darwin Museum Pat Simpson (University of Hertfordshire, UK)

9. A New Man in the Ethnographic Museum: Between the Socialist Content and the National Form Stanislav Petriashin (Russian Museum of Ethnography, Russia)

Part 4 – Conclusion

The New Man: One Hundred Years Later Yvonne Howell (University of Richmond, USA)

List of Contributors

Index