History Department

A century ago, amidst the catastrophe of world war, many Russians believed they were beginning a global transformation that would realize the deepest dreams of humanity for a fully humane world.  One can hardly exaggerate the extent of these dreams, hopes, beliefs; or their disappointment as time marched on.  A surprising expression of these dreams was public art, popular literature, and political writing filled with images of flight, wings, and even resurrection.  Of what Marxists called the “leap from the kingdom…