|
 
|
 |
|
Koenker, Diana P. Republic of Labor: Russian Printers and Soviet Socialism, 1918–1930. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2005.
|
Table of contents
Abstract
Reviews
Excerpt
|
|
“In a compelling and erudite exploration of the multiplicity of printers’
voices and identities, Diane P. Koenker examines the ways in which printers fashioned
a masculine working-class culture that co-opted some elements of the proletarian
ideal but rejected others as they sought to preserve their individualism, boisterous
behavior, and quest for material security. The focus on workers’ everyday resistance
to and negotiation with the regime challenges traditional understandings of NEP and
the so-called ‘Great Turn’ in significant ways.”
—Christine D. Worobec, Presidential Research Professor and Professor of
Russian History, Northern Illinois University
“Diane P. Koenker applies the categories of labor history, classical and
post-modern, to life under socialism in the Soviet 1920s. Through the experience
of printers, Koenker explores working-class organizations, identities, cultures,
and relationships to authority. Koenker proves that the printers managed to maintain
a sense of class identity in the face of mounting state claims that often denied
them the fruits of their own proletarian revolution.”
—Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist University
“In this beautifully crafted and deeply researched book, Diane P. Koenker
explores with characteristic subtlety the social world of Soviet printers, reconstructing
their responses to the drama of revolution and socialist modernization. In the richest
study to date of the meanings of class in the Soviet Union, she reveals the complexity
of printers’ identities, engaging with issues of production, consumption, ‘participatory
dictatorship,’ gender, generation, language and culture. It is a wonderful
achievement.”
—Steve Smith, University of Essex
|
