Explores the impact of the Russian Revolution and League of Nations on British modernist culture.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Making Modernism Soviet provides a new understanding of the ideological engagement of Russian modern artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vera Ermolaeva with the political and social agenda of the Bolsheviks in the chaotic years immediately following the Russian Revolution. Focusing on the relationship between power brokers and cultural institutions under conditions of state patronage, Pamela Kachurin lays to rest the myth of the imposition of control from above upon a victimized artistic community. Drawing on extensive archival research, she shows that Russian modernists used their positions within the expanding Soviet arts bureaucracy to build up networks of like-minded colleagues. Their commitment to one another and to the task of creating a socially transformative visual language for the new Soviet context allowed them to produce some of their most famous works of art. But it also contributed to the "Sovietization" of the art world that eventually sealed their fate.

Introduction -- 1. The sky is the limit: Malevich at the Vitebsk junction, 1919 -- 2. The 8th Congress of the Bolshevik Party and El Lissitzky's grasp of suprematism, 1919 -- 3. Theo van Doesburg, artist and strategist -- 4. The irreconcilable conflict between constructivism and suprematism in Moscow -- 5. The Mirage of world revolution: Post-revolution, postwar Berlin and Moscow 1918-1922 -- 6. As many narratives as narrators: Russian accounts of the new Russian art in the west -- 7. The First Russian Exhibition in Berlin, 1922, and its reception -- 8. Respectfully challenging the master: Lissitzky and Malevich -- 9. The book that was not. Van Doesburg's thumbs-down on the Malevich volume -- 10. The book that was not. Van Doesburg's thumbs-down on the Malevich volume -- 11. The Postwar Scene and The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam's Malevich exhibition, 1957 -- 12. The New Left's role in retrieving the interwar avant-gardes and reclaiming the Russian Avant-Garde in the 1960s -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

"In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet philologist, literary dissident, and university professor Viktor Duvakin made it his mission to interview the members of the artistic avant-garde who had survived the Russian Revolution, Stalin's purges, and the Second World War. Based on archival materials held at the Moscow State University Library, Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors catalogues six interviews conducted by Duvakin. The interviewees talk about their most intimate life experiences and give personal accounts of their interactions with famous writers and artists such as Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Eisenstein, and Marina Tsvetaeva. They offer insights into the world of Russian emigrants in Prague and Paris, the uprising against the Communist government, what it was like to work at the United Nations after the Second World War, and other important aspects of life in the Soviet Union and Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Archival photographs, as well as hundreds of annotations to the text, are included to help readers understand the historical and cultural context of the interviews. The unique and previously unpublished materials in Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors will be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn more about this fascinating period in Soviet history."--

Exploring the experiences of early to mid-twentieth century British theatre-makers in Russia, this book imagines how these travellers interpreted Russian realism, symbolism, constructivism, agitprop, pageantry, dance or cinema. With some searching for an alternative to the corporate West End, some for experimental techniques and others still for methods that might politically inspire their audiences, did these journeys make any differences to their practice? And how did distinctly Russian techniques affect British theatre history? Migrating Modernist Performance seeks to answer these questions, reimagining the experiences and creative output of a range of, often under-researched, practitioners. What emerges is a dynamic collection of performances that bridge geographical, aesthetic, chronological and political divides.