The Guardian Bookshop makes over 180,000 books available with up to 40% discount, as well as highlighting some of our favourite publications in each genre.
Find out more.
Translated by Sam Garrett, this blends travel writing with Soviet history and literature, as Westerman takes a literal journey through contemporary Russia and an imaginary one through Soviet-era literature. Will appeal to fans of Bruce Chatwin.
Synopsis
Draws the reader into the wild euphoria of the Russian Revolution, as art and reality are bent to radically new purposes. This title takes the reader along to the dramatic final confrontation between writers and engineers that signalled the end of the Soviet empire.
Book Details
Publisher:
VINTAGE
Publication Date:
04-Aug-2011
ISBN:
9780099461647
Guardian review
Engineers of the Soul: In the Footsteps of Stalin's Writers by Frank Westerman - review
Aimee Shalan the guardian Fri 19 August 2011
In 1932, Maxim Gorky summoned a group of renowned writers to his residence in Moscow. They were not told why, but it was made clear that it would be wise to attend. Once everyone was present, Stalin walked in. Describing the writers as "engineers of the soul", he insisted their role was more vital than that of tanks in developing the Soviet Union and exhorted them to write literature worthy of the revolution by singing the praises of construction. This unusual portrait of what was to become a unique literary genre embarks on two fascinating journeys: one to the bay of Kara Bogaz, once described by Konstantin Paustovksy as a marvel of hydraulic engineering, and the other into the province of Soviet literature. While western studies have tended to focus on books that were clandestine, banned, confiscated, or smuggled out of the USSR, Westerman (once a student of hydraulic engineering) is more interested in the works of converts, hangers-on, backsliders and doubters. Who'd have thought a literary history of hydraulics would be so readable?
