Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-136).
Contents:
Part 1: Vasily Yan's Biography -- The Formative Years -- The Rise of Japan, the Russo-Japanese War, and Yan's Continuous Intellectual Journey -- Yan During the Time of World War I, the Russian Revolutions, and Civil War -- The Ideological Setting of Yan's Novels: From Asianism to Russian Nationalism -- The Rise of Russian Nationalism and Its Implications for Writing Historical Novels -- Yan's Work in the Early 1930s -- Yan's Book on the Creation of the Mongol Empire and Stalinist Censorship -- The Attempt to Publish the Works on Mongols -- Response to Yan Novels Before the Great Patriotic (Soviet-German) War, 1941-1945 -- The War Years -- Yan's Life During the War -- Part 2: Vasily Yan's Works -- Ideological Framework of Yan's Novels on the Mongols -- Mongols as a "Collective Pilate": Genghis Khan and the Birth of Evil -- The Great Khan and the Fedorovian Dream -- Batu and the Mongol Invasion of Russia -- Russians as the Enemy of Mongols: Russians as "Collective Christ" Unified Around the Leader -- The Monolithic Unity of the Leaders and the Masses -- Russians as "Collective Christ" -- Russia as Christ and Defender of Europe -- The Change of the Image of the Mongols: Batu as Tough But Wise Stalin -- Conclusion.
Summary:
Vasily Yan (Vassily Grigoryevich Yanchevetsky, 1874-1954) was a writer of historical novels whose popularity survives the test of time. He was widely read throughout the Soviet era and continues to be popular in the post-Soviet era. This book is not just a biographical sketch of an important Russian/Soviet writer basically unknown to the Western public. The focus on Yan and his work also impressively demonstrates the dominant role of ideology in a totalitarian society, which is not just a socio-economic and political system of the past, but could reemerge in the future as ISIS has demonstrated. Shlapentokh shows that ideology and the cultural and intellectual life in totalitarian regimes are more complex than is often assumed. Intellectuals often enough engaged in stressful, but--in its literary outcome--captivating "cat and mouse" games with censors, the powerful, and the government.--Publisher website.
Series:
Literature and culture in Central and Eastern Europe, 2195-1497 ; 15
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.