Comments on: [no caption] http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/2006/08/01/no-caption/ Russia History Culture Technology (and, of course, Aviation) Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:20:10 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Scott Palmer http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/2006/08/01/no-caption/comment-page-1/#comment-2468 Scott Palmer Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:04:08 +0000 http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/2006/08/01/no-caption/#comment-2468 Mr. Schmidt, You've picked up on one of the "internal contradictions" that characterized the Soviet approach to building the air fleet (and modernizing the county as a whole). I believe that the campaign was sincere. However, like "smychka" [the broader effort to encourage rather than compel peasant participation in the "Soviet experiment"] it was short-lived. The reason for this was that policies aimed at accommodating the peasantry ran counter to far stronger currents in Bolshevik political culture, namely: the latent hostility to the "idiocy of rural" life (which you pointed out) coupled with a growing belief that the peasants were the principal obstacle to achieving rapid industrialization. The result was that the Party soon abandoned these methods in place of compulsion and collectivization. Still, some peasants would become pilots. But far greater numbers would become victims of mass starvation and state violence. ScP Mr. Schmidt,

You’ve picked up on one of the “internal contradictions” that characterized the Soviet approach to building the air fleet (and modernizing the county as a whole). I believe that the campaign was sincere. However, like “smychka” [the broader effort to encourage rather than compel peasant participation in the "Soviet experiment"] it was short-lived.

The reason for this was that policies aimed at accommodating the peasantry ran counter to far stronger currents in Bolshevik political culture, namely: the latent hostility to the “idiocy of rural” life (which you pointed out) coupled with a growing belief that the peasants were the principal obstacle to achieving rapid industrialization. The result was that the Party soon abandoned these methods in place of compulsion and collectivization.

Still, some peasants would become pilots. But far greater numbers would become victims of mass starvation and state violence.

ScP

]]> By: Brian Schmidt http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/2006/08/01/no-caption/comment-page-1/#comment-2462 Brian Schmidt Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:18:19 +0000 http://dictatorshipoftheair.com/2006/08/01/no-caption/#comment-2462 Was the Soviet push for peasants to join aviation sincere or was it a campaign to urbanize the traditional farmer? In Marx's writings he stresses the conformity of urban culture and declares that "rural life is idiocy." I find it hard to believe that the Soviet Union believed a peasant could actually become a pilot considering the peasant was emblematic of Russian backwardness and the government used underlying themes to ridicule rural life during the days of the agit-flights. One of Russia's failures was the fact that it did not value the individual. The poster campaign to turn the peasant into an aviator seems out of place considering the realities of Soviet cultural beliefs. Was the Soviet push for peasants to join aviation sincere or was it a campaign to urbanize the traditional farmer? In Marx’s writings he stresses the conformity of urban culture and declares that “rural life is idiocy.” I find it hard to believe that the Soviet Union believed a peasant could actually become a pilot considering the peasant was emblematic of Russian backwardness and the government used underlying themes to ridicule rural life during the days of the agit-flights. One of Russia’s failures was the fact that it did not value the individual. The poster campaign to turn the peasant into an aviator seems out of place considering the realities of Soviet cultural beliefs.

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