In this innovative and revelatory work, Igal Halfin exposes the inner struggles of Soviet Communists to identify themselves with the Bolshevik Party during the decisive decades of the 1920s and 1930s. The Bolsheviks preached the moral transformation of Russians into model Communists for their political and personal salvation. To screen the population for moral and political deviance, the Bolsheviks enlisted natural scientists, doctors, psychologists, sexologists, writers, and Party prophets to establish criteria for judging people. Self-inspection became a central Bolshevik practice....
In this innovative and revelatory work, Igal Halfin exposes the inner struggles of Soviet Communists to identify themselves with the Bolshevik Part...
This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as an instrument of power, intellectual historians often treat language as a supra-human force that somehow grips men and turns them into brainwashed automatons. Taking issue with both these approaches, the contributors to this volume treat language as a force that imbues the historical protagonist with the horizon of his/her meanings, on the one hand, and that is used to acquire a new sense of identity, on the other. In the momentous...
This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as...
This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as an instrument of power, intellectual historians often treat language as a supra-human force that somehow grips men and turns them into brainwashed automatons. Taking issue with both these approaches, the contributors to this volume treat language as a force that imbues the historical protagonist with the horizon of his/her meanings, on the one hand, and that is used to acquire a new sense of identity, on the other. In the momentous...
This work examines the role of language in forging the modern subject. While social historians tend to regard language as a pragmatic tool, as much as...
In this interdisciplinary and controversial work, Igal Halfin takes an original and provocative stance on Marxist theory, and attempts to break down the divisions between history, philosophy, and literary theory.
In this interdisciplinary and controversial work, Igal Halfin takes an original and provocative stance on Marxist theory, and attempts to break down t...
Intimate Enemies is a brilliant study of the transformation of Bolshevik Party ideology, language, and power relations during the crucial period leading up to Stalin's seizure of power. Combining extensive research in recently opened Soviet archives with an insightful rereading of intra-Party struggles, Igal Halfin uncovers this evolution in the language of Bolshevism. This language defined the methods for judging true party loyalty-in what Halfin describes as an examination of the 'hermeneutics of the soul, ' and became the basis for prosecuting the Party's enemies, particularly the...
Intimate Enemies is a brilliant study of the transformation of Bolshevik Party ideology, language, and power relations during the crucial perio...
