Voskresenskaya, M. (2020). The sociocultural dimension of the Russian Silver Age. St. Petersburg: SPbGU. (In Russ.)

Abstract

In her monograph, M. Voskresenskaya attempts to examine the Russian Silver Age as a historian and a scholar of culture. That perspective is made clear by the book’s title: it points to a sociocultural dimension, so, instead of analysing specific works created during the aforementioned period, she focuses on the society that provided the context for certain cultural and artistic processes. The author undertakes a sociocultural study of the environment in which works emerged that are so famous today, and devotes a whole chapter to the philosophy espoused by the cultural elite. Voskresenskaya also tackles the political agenda — starting with a characteristic of the search for ways to reform the world, she moves on to describe the choice made by the period’s artists, poets and writers to take part or refuse participation in the war and the revolution, and their perception of these two events. Employing the methods of cultural history studies, Voskresenskaya is painting a group portrait of the cultural icons of the Russian Silver Age.