Commentary on David Brandenberger´s National Bolshevism Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modern Russian National Identity

NATIONAL BOLSHEVISM
STALINIST MASS CULTURE AND THE FORMATION OF MODERN RUSSIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY, 1931-1956
DAVID BRANDENBERGER

In the beginning of this book of the history of the Russian people, we find that most Russian’s had no real identity of who they were or from where they descended. (P.11) They were just a people simply trying to make a living for their families not really caring where they came from or most important where the government wanted them to go. Sure they would, like most of us, like to have known where they descended from or who their ancestors were, if they were great or of noble decent, for some kind of recognition to their identity.
In the years prior to the 1930’s we find, as the first chapter in this book reveals, a sense of tradition toward Russian history, the doctrine of “Official Nationality”(P10)! This was the official doctrine but many outside the center of Russia were left out of this doctrine, they were just out there on their own with no official description. They were, as you would say, peasants waiting to be turned into royalty. *1 They were the middle class, the ones nobody really sees but makes up the majority of the population, only a handful of people make up the government, which rules and sets rules for the majority of the people. Like in paragraph one, they were just trying to make a living and could have cared less about the party agenda. I find this true in most countries including America.
Sarah Davies*2(P11) observes that “there was little notion of what Russianness meant for ordinary workers and peasants.”(P23) What was missing from most Russian people was their sense of heritage, the pride in knowing where they came from and where they were going. They needed history a...

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...today about Russia and or Germany come from their ideas about Stalin and Hitler, many misconceptions that can be addressed in this book, many things that we may have laid at the feet of this great people because of their leaders . The Russian people were bound by laws and the people in power, it is made clear in Brandenberger’s writing that the people were good and loved their country/
*1 Synopsis from the publisher, Harvard University Press.
*5 Eliot Borenstein, New York University Review of National Bolshevism
*3 Robert C. Tucker commentary. Biographer of Joseph Stalin
*2 Sarah Davies – Publisher and senior UK childrens publisher British historian of Soviet Union
*4 Ministry of education (Narkompros)
*6 David Brandenberger (Associate Professor of History and International Studies the University of Richmond)
*7 "It takes a village", by Hillary Rodham Clinton