1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910251404303321

Autore

Draskoczy Julie

Titolo

Belomor : criminality and creativity in Stalin's Gulag / / Julie Draskoczy

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston : , : Academic Studies Press, , 2014

ISBN

1-61811-694-0

1-61811-289-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (250 p.)

Collana

Myths and Taboos in Russian Culture

Classificazione

2,1

7,41

Disciplina

361

Soggetti

Labor camps - Soviet Union

Prisoners' writings

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on the Text -- Preface -- Introduction. Born Again: A New Model of Soviet Selfhood -- I. The Factory of Life -- II. The Art of Crime -- III. The Symphony of Labor -- IV. The Performance of Identity -- V. The Mapping of Utopia -- Epilogue -- List of Figures -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Containing analyses of everything from prisoner poetry to album covers, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin's Gulag moves beyond the simplistic good/evil paradigm that often accompanies Gulag scholarship. While acknowledging the normative power of Stalinism-an ethos so hegemonic it wanted to harness the very mechanisms of inspiration-the volume also recognizes the various loopholes offered by artistic expression. Perhaps the most infamous project of Stalin's first Five-Year Plan, the Belomor construction was riddled by paradox, above all the fact that it created a major waterway that was too shallow for large crafts. Even more significant, and sinister, is that the project won the backing of famous creative luminaries who enthusiastically professed the doctrine of self-fashioning. Belomor complicates our understanding of the Gulag by looking at both prisoner motivation and official response from multiple angles, thereby offering a more expansive vision of the labor camp and



its connection to Stalinism.