Winner of the 1990 Vucinich Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
"This intriguing book will be read with profit not only by
historians of Russia but also by anyone interested in utopian
visions and utopian experiments. Stites casts his net widely to
draw in a varied catch of science fiction writers, architects,
efficiency experts, student communards, and Bolshevik leaders. By
dissecting their ideas, he provides a provocative analysis of the
hopes of the Russian Revolution."--American Historical Review
"A dazzling compendium of the manifold ideas and projects that
flashed across Russia after 1917."--Times Higher Education
Supplement
"Unlike many previous studies of the subject, this book was not
written with a cynical or condescending smirk...Stites is one of a
small but increasingly influential group of American Slavists who
have dumped the righteous tone of cold war discourse about the
Soviet Union. Instead the author delights in revealing
diversity."--New Statesmen & Society
"A major contribution to the social and cultural history of the
USSR. Moreover, given its lucid and compelling style...there is no
reason why [it] will not sell well to a broader reading
public."--Ronald G. Suny, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
"Rich, learned, and stimulating...What Stites captures beautifully
in this fine book is the excitement and the sense of possibility of
the time when the Russian Revolution could still inspire utopian
hopes."--Utopian Studies
"[An] original study...Stites has his subject well in hand and
writes smoothly, and his work becomes a portrait of the Russian
people as they reveal themselves by their dreams."--The New
Yorker
"Recommended for all libraries."--CHOICE
"An exciting book that will be read and enjoyed by everyone
interested in the history of Soviet culture and society. With grace
and intelligence, the author illuminates myriad possibilities of
social and cultural development that took shape in the
revolutionary era. His unique contribution is to show the ambiguity
of the first decade of Soviet society, when dreamers from
Lenin...to pionerring artists and composers let their imaginations
range freely. The
result is also a new view of the 1930s as the era when dreams were
smothered and the state declared 'war on the dreamers.'"--Jeffrey
Brooks, University of Minnesota
"Thoroughly researched and extremely informative...A book to be
enjoyed."--Political Studies
"A comprehensive and sympathetic look at a long-gone age of
revolutionary dreamers and utopia-builders."--SLOVO
"One of the most original and exciting books in the field of
Russian History I have read in well over a decade. Revolutionary
Dreams is a wonderfully imaginative book, a work of power, sweep,
and energy. Stites has succeeded in breaking down the barriers
between political and cultural history, enabling us for the first
time to grasp the unique frameworks of thought and feeling
(especially and most originally 'feeling') that attracted a wide
variety of
Russians, both educated elite and 'people,' during the turbulent
post-Revolutionary years, and to grasp the significance of the sad
fate suffered by many of those who took the emancipatory goals of
the
revolution seriously. It is nothing less than a tour de
force."--Reginald Zelnik, University of California, Berkeley
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