Folklore for Stalin

Download or read book Folklore for Stalin written by Frank J. Miller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-26 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, folklore, like literature, became an instrument of the political propagandist. Folklorists devoted considerable efforts to attending to what purported to be a rebirth of the Russian epic tradition, producing works of pseudofolklore that as often as not featured Joseph Stalin in the hero's role. Miller's account of this curious episode in the history of popular culture and totalitarian politics, and his synopses and translations of "classic" examples of folklore for Stalin, seek to serve as a resource not only for the study of contemporary folklore but also for the political scientist.