Opening Remarks

With this short statement, I hereby commence publication of my own personal rag, which I have tenderly dubbed the WHEAT STATE PRAVDA. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, pravda means “truth” in Russian, and, more importantly, was the blanket title of the Soviet state’s official print organ. While local party affiliates also published their own municipal variations, the Pravda brand meant a direct link with the party line (and therefore state policy). It was an interesting system for reporting the news, to be sure. Pravda was an innovation of the twentieth century, of a totalizing ideology suddenly welded to state power. It was the first of its kind, but certainly not the last. We can even see the rough equivalent of our own American Pravdas here today, though with the caveat that instead of true state power theirs is stems from corporate capital. A news source that is delivers an inherently ideological message? Look no farther than CNBC or Fox News. (Also see? While the Soviets had a one-party democracy, we have two parties! Democracy at its finest! Boy, we sure are completely different and better. There needs to be a sarcasm font. Maybe I’ll introduce one somewhere down the line. But I digress.)

I intend to stick a bit more to the original meaning of pravda, though I admit that as this will be entirely written and edited, these “truths” that I express here will be entirely subjective. Nonetheless, I have found that at this particular moment in time and at this stage in my life, I really think that I need this as an outlet to vent, to explore ideas, and to broadcast my thoughts at the wider world. Whether they get read by anyone other than my closest friends and family or whether they have impact beyond their original form is a secondary concern for me at this time. Like Soviet dissident authors, I sometimes feel like I’m “writing for the desk drawer,” as to submit my message to the echo-chamber of social media oft feels like a fool’s errand, and as of yet I don’t feel comfortable trying to publish (though again, maybe someday). Moreso I write for myself, to keep my skills sharp, and to put ideas to paper and even invite the scrutiny of those I trust.

As most of my readers I’m sure will already know, this Fall I finally completed my doctoral exams in the History Department at the University of Washington. I have since moved back home to Kansas to live with my wife Jocelyn—hence the “Wheat State” aspect of our title. To complete my degree I still need to write a dissertation, which is a rather monumental task that I still don’t quite know how to tackle. That is not to say I’m lacking direction. I have a project that I’m rather psyched about, tentatively titled De-Stalinizing Soviet Civilization: From Stalingrad to Volgograd, 1943-1964. I want to look at the city which bore the namesake of the Soviet leader and the live of its inhabitants, starting with the Red Army’s triumph over the Nazi Wehrmacht through the deposing of Nikita Khrushchev, the man who had spearheaded the state’s effort to “de-Stalinize.”  Heavily influenced by recent innovations within the Soviet field, I hope to craft a history that goes beyond simple narratives of state power and opposition but into how human interactions and collective values came to create a unique civilizational experience in the Soviet Union.

As you might be able to gather based on those few short sentences, this is going to be no easy task, and one of the hardest things I anticipate about this project will just be finding where to start. I have so many ideas rattling around in my head: how the built environment of a city and the construction of space effects people’s perceptions of their own sense of place, how the memory of a cataclysmic struggle conflicts and a sense of sacrifice and ultimate victory are challenged by official revisionism, how power is constructed and distributed, and how the everyday can be just as important to the shaping of history as the monumental. One of my main reasons for even considering something like this blog was the overwhelming sense that if I didn’t try to start writing it down somewhere, I wouldn’t ever be able to make sense of it. As such, expect many of my posts to come back to these themes, in one way or another.

That said, I don’t plan to trap you all in the quagmire that will be my dissertation writing progress. I also want to use this space as a vehicle to try out some other mini-projects that have been kicking around in my head for some time. Here’s a brief look at some of the “Coming Attractions” I hope to get to here soon.

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      * Popular culture and depictions of Stalingrad—probably starting with a review of Enemy at the Gates, a 1999 film that doesn't even bother to give its characters Russian accents. Special guest commentary by Dr. David Stone of KSU.

·         * What is a "revolutionary value structure," and how does that impact our perception of what we now think of as Stalinism? Are their historical parallels in other revolutions? (protip: yes); Can we speak of the Soviet Union as a "revolutionary state?"

·        *  A review and commentary on the importance of Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate in understanding the war and its impact on Soviet society. (This will be a multiparter, Zhizn' i Sudba is something like 900 pages long and they all deserve treatment. Plus I'll be following it up with Everything Flows.)

·         * Semi-regular treatments of historical images of the war and the city of Stalingrad/Volgograd as it rebuilt from the cataclysmic struggle that took place in the city in 1942-43. The images you can find on the period are absolutely stunning, and I have a lot of fun with visual analysis. 

·         * “Making of a Murderer” vs. “The Making of an Enemy of the People”

·         *The importance of stories as a broad concept of human communication

·         *And many more musings transcribed straight from the pages of my graph-paper ruled notebooks!

First and foremost however, I thought as a bit of an “about the author” I would kick things off with a bit of a family history, after having some truly interesting conversations with my grandparents over the course of this last year. (This will also be a good place to start since I’ve already started writing it). Also, as I’m sure is the case with many of us, the story of where I come from is way more interesting that I had any inkling to expect as a disinterested kid growing up. Hopefully something there will be relatable enough that I can trick you into thinking WSP is worth keeping up with.

This is the second take of what I really wanted to do. While I began hoping to launch a Squarespace site that could serve as my own personal website (mainly for the purposes of the job market), I have since decided that the only aspect of it that I was really excited about was the blog section. As such, I have switched my platform to strictly focus on writing, rather than showcasing my old work. Also, I really enjoyed the customization options on Google Blogger. Just check out my cool color scheme and font options! I put probably way too much effort into getting the aesthetic that I wanted, but hopefully, just maybe, it will somehow add to the experience of reading WSP.

My New Year’s Resolution (separate from my New Year’s Revolution to overthrow the American oligarchy, mind you) was to keep writing at all costs, and that’s what I intend to do. It’s January, and I have lots of ideas kicking around in my head, so I’m sure I’ll start off strong. We’ll see how many curveballs life can throw at me in the course of 2016, but until I find it impossible to do otherwise I’m going to try to post something EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT, even if that something is simply an explanation as to why I have nothing better to post. Any attempts to keep me honest in that respect will be more than welcome.

In addition, I really hope this can be a bit of an interactive space. I might post some ramblings that get pretty far out there, politically and philosophically wise. Many ideas will be experimental, half-baked things that I throw out to see if they have any validity at all with a wider (wiser?) audience. If you do happen to make it through an entire post, PLEASE LEAVE ME ANY COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE!

Today my wife and I travel back to the Emerald City to take back what is mine—that is to say, we’re literally going up to shove all my worldly possessions into a box that we can ship back to Lawrence. I’m excited to see all of the incredible friends I made there again after break, and to talk with them about all the crazy goings-on in the world today. It feels like it’s so rare in the world today to find a circle of people that close. I can’t express how instrumental all of them have been to even get to this point, to feel confident enough in my ideas and my politics and to know that, no, I’m not alone in this crazy worldview of mine, inherently cynical and yet so full of love. I think that in a way they are the intended audience, since I know that of all the great aspects of my life up in Seattle, that while I’m back home I’ll miss thinking and talking and arguing with them most of all. Krug koniushni navechno.  

And on that rather sentimental note, I will leave you… with assuredly much more to come. Until next time, Comrades!

-MC