- 282 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
Grand Theater examines bureaucracy not as a readily identifiable structure but rather as a process of day-to-day operation. Thus it is concerned with how agencies of both the communist party and the state apparatus not only implemented directives from above but also responded to perceived successes and failures, chose to produce, share, and conceal information, and reacted when common citizens injected themselves into governance by making demands and complaints. It concentrates on the 1930s as a seminal period when Stalin's regime established a hypercentralized system that dominated the Soviet Union until its collapse and the Russian Federation since then. It also focuses on the administration of schools as the primary window through which to examine governance because of the importance of education to Soviet authorities, most notably Stalin himself, and the accessibility of archival documents in this field, one not classified as particularly sensitive.
Grand Theater provides novel insights into the functioning of Stalinist bureaucracy, brings to the forefront a new understanding of center-periphery relations, and reveals the important role of individuals in what has heretofore been largely regarded, when beyond the Kremlin's inner circle, as a highly impersonal system. It also examines in unprecedented ways the reciprocal relationship between ideology and policy formation, on the one hand, and actual administrative practices, on the other, a relationship that more often than not had negative and dysfunctional consequences for both the governed and governing. Holmes argues that the Soviet administrative system during the 1930s was much like grand theater. The documents produced for and by that system were the script for a discursive theatrical reality that inspired neither a careful appraisal of problems nor a dispassionate search for workable solutions.
Grand Theater provides novel insights into the functioning of Stalinist bureaucracy, brings to the forefront a new understanding of center-periphery relations, and reveals the important role of individuals in what has heretofore been largely regarded, when beyond the Kremlin's inner circle, as a highly impersonal system. It also examines in unprecedented ways the reciprocal relationship between ideology and policy formation, on the one hand, and actual administrative practices, on the other, a relationship that more often than not had negative and dysfunctional consequences for both the governed and governing. Holmes argues that the Soviet administrative system during the 1930s was much like grand theater. The documents produced for and by that system were the script for a discursive theatrical reality that inspired neither a careful appraisal of problems nor a dispassionate search for workable solutions.
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Yes, you can access Grand Theater by Larry E. Holmes in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Russian History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Grand Theater
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration and Abbreviations
- Districts in the Kirov Region, 1935
- Preface: The Wealth of Regional History
- Introduction
- Chapter 01: A Script of Perfection, Failure, Blame
- Chapter 02: Ascent into Darkness: Escalating Negativity, 1931–1941
- Chapter 03: A Symbiosis of Errors: The Personal ,Professional, and Political, 1931–1938
- Chapter 04: The Art of Complaint, 1931–1938
- Chapter 05: Power to the People and to the State: Great Performances by V. P. Bulygina and E. T. Chernykh
- Chapter 06: “My Friend, I’ve Hit Rock Bottom”: Politics and Friendship
- Chapter 07: A Tragedy: The Terror
- Chapter 08: Degeneration of the Symbiosis of Errors, 1938–1941
- Chapter 09: “Stop This Petty Tyranny”: Letters and The Administration of Schools in Falenki, 1940–1941
- Chapter 10: Proprietary Professionalism: Mine by Right, 1938–1941
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author