Talk | Michael Erdman | An Exploration of the Aesthetics and Content of Early Soviet Turkic…

Michael Erdman | Transformational in Form, Socialist in Content: An Exploration of the Aesthetics and Content of Early Soviet Turkic Periodicals

In 1917, two revolutions radically altered Russian society, including its Muslim Turkic-speaking segments. The first upheaval, in February, introduced organised political activity never before seen in the Russian Empire. The second, in October, led to the fundamental reorganisation of Eurasian society. The institutions of the ancien régime were demolished and new ones arose, destined to incorporate all sections of Russian society. For Soviet Turkic Muslims, however, this often meant a repurposing of pre-Revolutionary conditions.

This paper examines how reformist aesthetic currents in Turkic periodicals of the 1920s were married with socialist content to promote Soviet ideology. I explore how typography, script changes, imagery, and article subject matter cultivated an imaginary of the new Soviet society. In particular, I ask if such periodicals enacted an early stage of the Stalinist policy “national in form, socialist in content.” I also highlight the appropriation of extant social reform movements to make socialist ideology more familiar, and more local, to convince Soviet Turkic Muslims of the wisdom of Moscow’s hegemony.

This talk is part of AAA's symposium series, It Begins with a Story: Artists, Writers, and Periodicals in Asia.

Organised by Asia Art Archive in collaboration with The University of Hong Kong, this symposium explores how periodicals have fostered conversations around art and emergent forms of visuality in twentieth-century Asia. A series of talks, discussions, and exhibitions will be presented leading up to the symposium.

Find out more about this talk here: https://bit.ly/2kFtmIn