Russia at Play: Leisure Activities at the End of the Tsarist Era by Louise s> McReynolds (review)

Abstract

750 SEER, 8i, 4, 2003 But there can be no quibbling about the scholarly qualities and historiographical impact of this impressivemonograph. The comprehensive coverage of hitherto-unavailable,punctiliouslypresented primarysourcesfrom the state archivesof St Petersburgand Moscow, which fullydocuments the tsarist side of the Anglo-Russian relationship for the first time, would alone be enough to raise this study to the first order of importance in diplomatic history. Conscientiously integrated with official British documentation, the Russia material mined during Siegel's resourceful 'window of archival opportunity' reveals the I907 Convention not as a golden turning-point transformingpreviously-hostile Anglo-Russian relations but as a temporary tactical stand-off dictated by the near-revolutionarydomestic trauma which accompanied Russia'shumiliatingmilitarydebacle at the handsofJapan over I904-05. With Russia'songoing physical recovery and revivingpolitical selfconfidence , the Convention of I907 with the 'wearytitan' of the increasingly oil-obsessed BritishEmpire was preservedonly by theirjoint fear of German interference and eventually the fortuitouslytimely intervention of European war. As an investigation into the remorseless friction between two proudly expansionist but over-extended and therefore vulnerable Great Powers, Endgamemakes a magisterial and original contribution towards our reunderstandingof the worldwhich was to disappearwith the FirstWorldWar. Department ofHistogy RAYMOND PEARSON University ofUlster at Coleraine McReynolds, Louise. RussiaatPlay:Leisure Activities attheEndoftheTsarist Era. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, and London, 2003. x + 309 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Bibliographicalessay.Index. $36.50; /22.95. PLAY is a seriousbusiness,especiallyforhistorians.In herwell-researchedand stimulatingstudy, Louise McReynolds brings firmlyto our attention the late tsarist leisure industry and shows how it can deepen our understanding of Russian culture and society. The book's eight chapters cover five main areas of activity: theatre (both 'legitimate' and 'commercialized'), sport, tourism, nightlife, and cinema. McReynolds's treatment of the material is often subtle and discriminating. She shows how unhelpful the intelligentsia's distinction between 'reactionary' and 'progressive' can be (for example in the case of A. S. Suvorin);how capitalismcould be reconciled with Russian traditionsin the activities of directors, theatre managers and numerous other leisure entrepreneurs;how international sport pushed the Russian nation to define itself; how commercial culture offered women new opportunities for selfexpressionand self-identification,while at the same time settinglimitsto their agency. Along the way there is much intriguing detail. In Russiaat Play we learn how the Russian totalizatorworked, how much actors and authors got paid, how football was brought to St Petersburg,and how Russia responded to the modern Olympic movement. The book also has more than fifty well chosen illustrations:streetscenes, sportsphotos, photo-portraits(especiallyof actors),cartoons, and promotional picturesof resorts. REVIEWS 75I As well as presenting much new material, McReynolds is making a broad point about the historiography of late tsarist society. In her view, the prerevolutionary 'middle class' has too often been assessedby the socio-political standardsof westernliberalism.Although it is hardto disputethatthe Russian 'bourgeoisie'failedto buildstrongcivicinstitutionsorto achieve a determining influence on Russia's political development, 'failure' is not a fair or an interestingassessmentof its activities.Drawing on severalculturalhistoriesof WesternEuropean and North American modernity, McReynolds arguesthat middle classes are created not by entrepreneurshipand civic associationsbut by self-fashioningand the creation of new identities. The middle class is not an occupational group, or any other set of real people, but rather a set of patterns of behaviour, or practices of consumption. The self, not society, is where the essence of politics is to be found. This approach is illuminatingand thought-provokingand a usefulcorrective to earlier scholarship.But even so it is not without its problems. If we are looking for the practices that shaped people's identities, then it is not entirely clear why commercialized leisure needs to be ring-fenced and privilegedover other areas of experience. And not all leisure activitiesfit the author'snotion of modernity. Where does reading belong, for example? (McReynolds could undoubtedly give a good answer to this question, as she has written an excellent book on late imperialnewspapers.)Nightlife ispresentedin thisbook as themajor form of modern sociability in the late tsaristera, and is rightly contrastedwith the popular festivals(gulian'ia) that had formerlyprovided an important rhythm of urban life. But between gulian'eand kabare there were other forms of recreation that did not take place in the hours of darkness. McReynolds...