The Making of a Soviet Hero: the Case of Spartacus

Oleksii Rudenko

doi:10.30965/18763324-20201365

Oleksii Rudenko

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.30965/18763324-20201365

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Abstract

Abstract This article examines the process of establishing the image of ancient slave rebellion leader Spartacus in the early Soviet era, with a focus on the 1920s and 1930s. Although the image of Spartacus in Soviet historiography has been investigated by scholars, the process of acculturation and reception of his figure within toponymy, onomastics, sport, and history-writing has not been researched as a holistic approach of Soviet propaganda. This article traces how and why Spartacus’s image became the primary figure of the classical antiquity in Soviet propaganda of the 1920s. The article argues that it was not Soviet historiography in the 1920s that shaped his image to be embodied in the Soviet narratives and public space. Rather, art, local toponymy, and sports created and promoted a particularly Soviet reception of Spartacus in the 1920s and 1930s which provided implications for socialist Central-Eastern European countries in the post-World War II era.

Highlights

Having established their power in the Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Belarus) and Russia and after the following creation of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in 1922, the Bolsheviks attempted to construct the basis of a new Soviet communist cultural identity
The image of Spartacus in Soviet historiography has been investigated by scholars, the process of acculturation and reception of his figure within toponymy, onomastics, sport, and history-writing has not been researched as a holistic approach of Soviet propaganda
Keywords Spartacus – sports – Soviet Union – toponyms – Soviet propaganda – onomastics

Summary

Introduction

Having established their power in the Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Belarus) and Russia and after the following creation of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in 1922, the Bolsheviks attempted to construct the basis of a new Soviet communist cultural identity. Classical antiquity, comprising of ancient Greek and Roman history, in the imagination of Soviet state-builders could be used successfully to justify specific communist claims from a historical perspective, serving the particular Soviet myth-making. From the very beginning I outline a primary research question: was it Soviet historiography that established the image of Spartacus in the early Soviet republics or rather Soviet history-writing was forced to follow the artificial pathway of Spartacus’s image, created by the communist art, toponymic practices and sport? The promoted figure of Spartacus was a minor component of Soviet propaganda, my article may prompt further research into the tools of promoting the communist narrative inside Soviet republics before 1939 and in the socialist countries of Central-Eastern Europe after 1945. Rudenko scope and the approach of my article lie within diverse fields: early Soviet history, history of propaganda, art history and the classical reception studies

Inventing the Hero in Early Communist Propaganda

Spartacus in Soviet Historiography

Toponymy and Onomastics

Sport and Spartacus in Socialist Reality

Conclusion