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THOUGHTS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN RUSSIA

THOUGHTS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN RUSSIA ARTICLES) THOUGHTS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT I N RUSSIA ELISE KIMERLING WIRTSCHAFTER (Pomona, CA, USA) Historians o f communism and the former Soviet Union intuitively trace the origins o f modem revolutionary and totalitarian ideologies back to Enlightenment thought. In Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civiliza- tion, Stephen Kotkin writes: The main reason the USSR needs to be incorporated into Euro- pean history is that Stalinism constituted a quintessential Enlighten- ment utopia, an attempt, via the instrumentality o f the state, to im- pose a rational ordering on society, while at the same time overcom- � ing the wrenching class divisions brought about by nineteenth- century industrialization. That attempt, in turn, was rooted in a tradi- tion o f urban-modeled, socially oriented utopias that helped make the Enlightenment possible. Magnitogorsk had very deep roots.1 1 Abbott Gleason invokes a similar connection in Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War: Along with the pervasive loss o f faith in the statist Left has come, in recent years, a more subtle loss o f faith in revolutions to accom- plish major and lasting social change in the world, especially through the application o f state power. This kind http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography Brill

THOUGHTS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN RUSSIA

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2009 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1947-9956
eISSN
2210-2388
DOI
10.1163/221023809X00012
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ARTICLES) THOUGHTS ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENLIGHTENMENT I N RUSSIA ELISE KIMERLING WIRTSCHAFTER (Pomona, CA, USA) Historians o f communism and the former Soviet Union intuitively trace the origins o f modem revolutionary and totalitarian ideologies back to Enlightenment thought. In Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civiliza- tion, Stephen Kotkin writes: The main reason the USSR needs to be incorporated into Euro- pean history is that Stalinism constituted a quintessential Enlighten- ment utopia, an attempt, via the instrumentality o f the state, to im- pose a rational ordering on society, while at the same time overcom- � ing the wrenching class divisions brought about by nineteenth- century industrialization. That attempt, in turn, was rooted in a tradi- tion o f urban-modeled, socially oriented utopias that helped make the Enlightenment possible. Magnitogorsk had very deep roots.1 1 Abbott Gleason invokes a similar connection in Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War: Along with the pervasive loss o f faith in the statist Left has come, in recent years, a more subtle loss o f faith in revolutions to accom- plish major and lasting social change in the world, especially through the application o f state power. This kind

Journal

Journal of Modern Russian History and HistoriographyBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2009

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