Book Notes

Abstract

Where the early Marx described false consciousness as an outgrowth of capitalism, this book details how the Soviet state systematically promoted a “moral economy” in which economic relationships between state and citizen were reframed by news discourse, popular culture, and the arts into a set of moral obligations borne by dependent citizens in grateful service to their omni-provident state.Brooks documents how the Soviet leadership employed myth, ritual, and spectacle to organize an “official” popular culture around a cult of Stalin while at the same time suppressing public debate outside the private sphere. Newspapers are the primary focus of this book, since they constituted a central discursive arena in which the state defined a national Soviet identity and cultivated the loyalty of its citizens. Examining the most intensive period of state control from the October Revolution of 1917 until Stalin’s death in 1953, this book provides a vivid and systematic analysis of the techniques used by the Soviet leadership to build a nation unified in service to the state.