Re-Reading Two Classics of Russian Cultural History

Abstract

Re-Reading Two Classics of Russian Cultural History Jeffrey Brooks (bio) Camilla Gray's The Great Experiment: Russian Art, 1863–1922 and James Billington's The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture are classics of cultural history; works influential in their own times that still sell a half-century later.1 Classics, whether of literature or history, exert a force that shapes their surrounding environments, and this is certainly the case for these two. The same force, however, can serve to shield classics from thoughtful reflection, since the works become an accepted feature of the intellectual landscape. Classics achieve this status through their own merit—they carry meaning to successive generations of readers or analysts and thereby earn their longevity.2 Critics certify their importance and they seem "beyond vernacular corruption and change," as Frank Kermode observes in The Classic (1975).3 Their very acceptance may obscure examination of how they manifest and are limited by their own times. [End Page 103] In the cases of Gray and Billington, the more than 50 years from the issuance of their works to the present day have been transformative, of the world generally and of Russia's place in it. It would be odd indeed if their treatments of Russian cultural history spoke in the same ways to today's readers as to earlier audiences. Some classics fall as new knowledge shows them to be wrong or even retrograde. Gray's Great Experiment and Billington's Icon and the Axe have not met this fate and, in the opinion of this reviewer, rightly so. Nonetheless, the works are dated by their origins in the Cold War and messaging framed in that context. A critical reading of each from the vantage point of 2021 shows the ideological tensions of the 1960s as if highlighted in neon, and the lights flash in different colors in the two books. A reevaluation that gives explicit recognition to the times and imperatives that shaped the works might at once deepen our appreciation of them in their own times and ease them in ours into well-earned and respectful retirement. These are two weighty tomes. Both carry intellectual gravitas due to their content and to their physical heft. Gray's first edition, published by Thames and Hudson in the United Kingdom and Abrams in the United States in 1962, in an 11x10 inch hardback format tips the scales at just under five pounds. The weight derives from high-quality paper with black-and-white illustrations and many set-in color plates. It is a beautiful book and clearly not intended only as an ornament for coffee tables—it has too many words. (Many readers came to know the book in the less lavish and more compact editions of 1971 and 1986.) Billington more than doubles Gray's page count, with almost 800, but comes in at about half the weight due to a more modest format, lighter paper, and no color plates. His is a book to read, rather than savor visually. In both cases, the size of the books is significant and reflects their temporal context. The postwar period in America was one of optimism and upward mobility for many, and education promised advancement. Over two million veterans of World War II and the Korean War attended college or postgraduate studies under the G.I. Bill from 1944 to 1956, and twice as many acquired other schooling or job training.4 Veterans bought suburban houses in developments such as Levittown and sought to upgrade their cultural standing along with their housing. (Housing options for Black veterans were much more constrained than for White.) The passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, largely in response to Sputnik, supported an increase in the number of students in college from 3.6 million in [End Page 104] 1960 to 7.5 million in 1970.5 The NDEA also promoted the study of Soviet Russia and the Russian language. The rising middle class of first-generation college graduates moved into white-collar positions and well-paying factory jobs. The advertising industry, so influential in shaping Americans' self-images, amplified social stratification by signaling correlates...