Moscow, the Fourth Rome: Stalinism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Evolution of Soviet Culture, 1931-1941

Clark's revelatory portrait of a scintillating future-facing metropolis should dispel the gloomy myth of Moscow in the 1930s%E2%80%94bleak and gray beneath its pall of purges and trials. Instead, the city was "a city of light," where art and politics fused in its literature, film, and drama. Moscow seemed the successor to Rome, a center of art and power whose influence would overspread the entire globe. Yale University professor Clark demonstrates that culture was always central to a wide range of Soviet citizens. Artistic and political leaders hoped to create "an aesthetic state" populated by an entirely new type of citizen, and this project reflected broad trends rather than Stalin's whims. However, many nations were attempting similar experiments, and although Clark alludes to parallel developments in the United States and Europe, as well as to Stalin's cultural rivalry with Hitler, she is never quite able to identify what made the Soviet experience different from those pursued elsewhere. Nevertheless, this is intellectual history at its best%E2%80%94simultaneously grand and intimate, discussing world trends while emphasizing the importance of individual figures, events, and works of art. (Nov.)