Living the revolution: urban communes & Soviet socialism, 1917-1932

222 Pages·2017·3.15 MB·English

by  Andy, Willimott

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OXFORD STUDIES
IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY
General Editors
S IMON DIXON, MARK MAZOWER,
and
JAMES RETALL ACK
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PRAISE FOR LIVING THE REVOLUTION
‘Dr Willimott’s book provides a lively insight into the attempts of some young
people in early Soviet Russia to live out in practice the proclaimed ideals of the new
Communist regime. He describes vividly the hopes inspiring their experiments
in collective living, their successes, frustrations and failures, and how ultimately
those experiments were integrated into the emerging totalitarian structure of the
Stalinist regime.’
Geofrey Hosking, University College, London
‘Living the Revolution is about those youthful citizens of the new Soviet republic—
men and women—who sought to remake their lives by throwing in their lot with
the Bolsheviks. It is, to be sure, a critical analysis of their many projects. But,
unlike previous historians who all too easily dismissed them as “utopian,” it reviv-
ifes the spirit of those eforts, putting the reader in touch with the emotional
energy of the revolution. Here, at last, is a rigorously researched yet unapologeti-
cally sympathetic account of the multiple initiatives undertaken in the frst decade
of Soviet power to bring the revolution into the workplace, the classroom, and
the home.’
Lewis Siegelbaum, Michigan State University
‘Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and bursting with narrative appeal,
Willimott’s study of early Soviet communes demonstrates that a hundred years
after the Russian Revolution not all has been said about the revolution’s layers,
complexities, and legacies. From the very frst sentence—a question to his readers—
Willimott draws us into an energetic world of enthusiasm, idealism, and activism,
but also of disappointment, fracture, and confict. He convincingly shows that
neither did spontaneous self-experimentation end with the advent of Soviet power,
nor was every aspect of revolutionary utopianism irrevocably lost during the Stalin
years. Rather he weaves a fne net of dense description, in which he brings the
elusive communes to life, while subtly quoting, probing, and pushing existing
scholarship on the period and indeed beyond.’
Juliane Furst, University of Bristol
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Living the Revolution
Urban Communes & Soviet
Socialism, 1917–1932
ANDY WILLIMOT T
1
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3
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© Andy Willimott 2017
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First Edition published in 2017
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016935942
ISBN 978–0–19–872582–4
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For my parents
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 01/09/16, SPi
Acknowledgements
Many individuals and institutions helped to inspire this book and get it to this point.
Tanks to the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council for funding my frst
explorations into the world of the urban communes and communards, and to the
Leverhulme Trust for granting me a three-year early career research fellowship and
the time to bring the book to fruition.
Tanks to the team at Oxford University Press, especially the commissioning
editor, Robert Faber, and assistant commissioning editor, Cathryn Steele, for
their support, enthusiasm, and professionalism. Tanks to my copy-editor,
Elizabeth Stone, for her keen eye and skill. Tanks also to the anonymous readers
for their constructive criticism and detailed engagement with the early manu-
script. Te readers subsequently identifed themselves as Christopher Read and
Mark Steinberg.
Tanks to those who agreed to read all or part of the manuscript, ofering valu-
able comments along the way, including Edward Acton, David Brandenberger,
Michael David-Fox, Juliane Fürst, Geofrey Hosking, Dan Healey, Francis King,
Diane Koenker, Lisa Kirschenbaum, Kristin Roth-Ey, Stephen A. Smith, Lewis
Siegelbaum, and Matt Worely.
Tanks to the fellow researchers and scholars who put up with me in Moscow
and St Petersburg, especially those who elected to share an apartment with me at
one point or another, including Alan Crawford, J. J. Gura, Samantha Sherry,
Simon Huxtable, and Alessandro Iandalo. Tanks to George Gilbert and Scott
Siggins for sharing their enthusiasm for all things Russian. Jonathan Waterlow
deserves particular thanks—not only for his friendship and good company over
the years, but for reading and commenting on the manuscript for this book and
countless other things, often at short notice.
Tanks to the School of History at UEA, where, surrounded by the inspiring
architecture of Denys Lasdun and Norman Foster, I frst decided to embark on
my inquiries into modern dreamers and alternative forms of living. And thanks
to the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies, where I held my
Leverhulme fellowship, engaged in many interesting debates, and wrote much of
this book.
I owe a debt of gratitude to several scholars at these two institutes, especially
Peter Waldron, whom I was fortunate to have as a passionate and knowledgeable
supervisor, and Matthias Neumann, who was an early and enthusiastic backer.
Both are now dear friends. Cathie Carmichael was also a positive secondary super-
visor to my postgraduate work. Also, particular thanks to Simon Dixon—a witty,
supportive, fun, and yet thorough and challenging mentor. And Susan Morrissey
was a source of wisdom throughout my Leverhulme fellowship. All read more than
their fair share of book proposals and early drafts, too.
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viii Acknowledgements
Tanks also to my new colleagues at the University of Reading for providing me
with a warm welcome and helping to minimize disruption to the fnal stages of
editing.
Tanks to those that have presented alongside me at conferences and to those
that commented on various commune-based research papers over the years, be it
at the Annual Conference of the Association of Slavonic, East European & Eurasian
Studies (ASEEES) in Los Angeles, Washington, New Orleans, Boston, Austin, and
Philadelphia; the Annual Conference of the British Association of Slavonic &
Eastern European Studies (BASEES) in Cambridge; the International Council for
Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) World Congress in Stockholm and
Tokyo; gatherings of the Study Group of the Russian Revolution (SGRR) in
Belfast and Norwich; or the Russian studies seminars of UCL SSEES and Oxford.
Tanks to those behind the wonderfully titled Russian Archive Training Scheme
(RATS), especially Polly Jones and Alexander Titov, who introduced me to the
repositories of Moscow and St Petersburg several years ago, and have remained
good friends ever since.
Tanks to the staf of the libraries in which I went on to conduct research: the
UCL SSEES Library and the British Library, in the UK, and the Russian State
Library (a.k.a. ‘the Lenin Library’) and the State Public Historical Library, in
Russia. Tanks also to the staf of the archives and museums in which I conducted
research: RGASPI, RGASPI-m, GARF, TsGA, OKhDOPIM, SPbETU, and
MRGPU im. Herzen. Galina Mikhailova Tokareva (RGASPI-m) and Ekaterina
Matveevna Kolosova (MRGPU im. Herzen) deserve honourable mention.
Tanks to Veronika Bowker and Anastasia Khachemizova for ofering answers
to linguistic anomalies that had me stumped, and for providing me with warm
Russian hospitality on numerous occasions.
Above all, a special thank you to Jennifer Helen Davey, my strongest critic, my
fercest friend, and my partner in all things.
And a special thank you to my parents. I dedicate this book to them, as I said I
would: a poor reimbursement for their unfaltering love and support.
Andy Willimott
London
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Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acronyms in Archival Citations xiii
A Note on Names and Transliteration xv
Introduction: Making their Revolution 1
1. Revolutionary Beginnings 25
2. Socialism in One Dormitory: Student Communes 49
3. Socialism in One Apartment: Byt Communes 79
4. Socialism in One Factory: Production Communes 105
5. Early Stalinism and the Urban Communes 131
Conclusion: Te Commune is Dead, Vive le Communard! 157
Bibliography 171
Index 191