Lenin, Vladimir (1870–1924)
Vladimir Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) was the most prominent figure in the translation of Marxist political economy and theories of proletarian revolution into successful…
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Intellectual Currents
This section focusses on the historical, sociological, philosophical, economic, political, and scientific context of modernism. Entries cover individuals, coteries, movements, and events. The primary criterion…
Social Realism
Modernism in Europe
We are living in a very singular moment of history. It is a moment of crisis, in the literal sense of that word. In every…
Constructivism
Prior to World War II, Constructivism attracted little interest from British artists apart from the few involved with Circle in 1937. Circle consisted of a…
Modernism in Africa
Though they often escape critical scrutiny, concepts such as modernism, modernity, and modernization are at the heart of the concept of development, and thus omnipresent…
Vaginov, Konstantin Konstantinovich Wagenheim [ВАГИНОВ, КОНСТАНТИН КОНСТАНТИНОВИЧ ВАГЕНГЕЙМ] (1899–1934)
Konstantin Konstantinovich Wagenheim Vaginov was a Russian poet and novelist affiliated at different points with a number of literary groups in Petrograd/Leningrad. While originally born…
Trotsky, Leon (1879–1940)
Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, is one of the most controversial figures in twentieth-century history. Along with Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), he played a decisive…
Pärt, Arvo (1934–)
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer whose music has had phenomenal success worldwide since his radical stylistic change from an overtly modernistic aesthetic to a…
Sologub, Fyodor (1863–1927)
Fyodor Sologub was a symbolist poet, novelist and playwright, who was known for his decadent style of writing and his elaborate personal mythology centered on…
Agitprop Theatre
Now widely used as a catchall term to describe politically combative or oppositional art, “agitprop” originated from the early Soviet conjunction of propaganda (raising awareness…
Stalin, Joseph (1878–1953)
Joseph Stalin (Iusif Vassarionovich Dzhugashvili) was born in Gori, Russian Empire, which is part of present-day Georgia. He adopted the name ‘Stalin’ from the Russian…
Vvedensky, Aleksandr Ivanovich (1904–1941)
Known during his lifetime as a failed avant-garde poet who went on to a successful, if minor, career as a children’s writer, Vvedensky is acknowledged…
Zoshchenko, Mikhail Michailovich (1894–1958)
Mikhail Zoshchenko was a Soviet writer of short stories and tales (sometimes autobiographical), as well as a feuilletonist, memoirist, and dramatist. He was a member…
Odoevtseva, Irina Vladimirovna (1895–1990)
Poet, memoirist, and novelist with roots in the Acmeist literary movement, Odoevtseva is best known for her two volumes of memoirs, which portray many of…
Leonov, Leonid Maksimovich (1899–1994)
Loenid Maksimovich Leonov was a Russian prose writer and playwright. Born in Moscow, Leonov volunteered as a soldier and journalist in the Red Army during…
Kharms, Daniil Ivanovich [ХАРМС, ДАНИИЛ ИВАНОВИЧ] (1905–1942)
Co-founder (with Aleksandr Vvedensky) of the short-lived Obedinenie real’nogo iskussta, or OBERIU (The Association for Real Art), Kharms was one of the leading figures of…
Bloch, Ernst (July 8, 1885, Ludwigshafen - August 4, 1977, Tübingen)
Ernst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher. Fleeing the Nazis in 1934, he lived in exile in Switzerland, France, Czechoslovakia, and the US. In 1949…
Bernstein, Eduard (1850–1932)
Eduard Bernstein was a prominent politician in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), which in the late nineteenth century was the largest workers’ party in…
Chukovsky, Kornei Ivanovich (ЧУКОВСКИЙ, КОРНЕЙ ИВАНОВИЧ) (1882–1969)
Born Nikolai Vasil’evich Korneichukov, Chukovsky was a renowned writer, critic, and translator. He was born in St. Petersburg but moved to Odessa at the age…
Zabolotsky, Nikolai Alexeevich (1903–1958)
Nikolai Alexeevich Zabolotsky was a Russian poet and translator, and a member of the avant-garde absurdist group Oberiu (a modified acronym for Obedinenie Realnogo Iskusstva…
Kuleshov, Lev Vladimirovich (1899–1970)
Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet director and theorist who initiated the montage movement of the 1920s. He proclaimed editing to be the primary authorial act…
Chernikhov, Iakov (1889–1951)
Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov was born in Pavlograd, Yekaterinenskav Gubernia, in the Russian Empire (now Dnepropetrovskaya oblast, Ukraine) into an impoverished petit bourgeois Jewish family. Having…
MacDiarmid, Hugh (1892–1978)
Hugh MacDiarmid was the pseudonym of Christopher Murray Grieve, the pre-eminent Scottish modernist poet, and leading proponent of the interwar “Scottish Literary Renaissance.” His best-known…
Lopukhov, Fedor Vasilievich (1886–1973)
The most prolific choreographer of the early Soviet period, Fedor Lopukhov was associated with two seemingly contradictory developments in Soviet ballet in the 1920s: his…