Making Modernism Soviet: How the Russian Avant-Garde Survived and Thrived in the Early Soviet Era

In this talk, Prof. Pamela Kachurin discusses her highly-anticipated new book, Making Modernism Soviet: The Russian Avant-Garde in the Early Soviet Era, 1918-1928, which provides a new understanding of the ideological engagement of artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vera Ermolaeva with the political and social agenda of the Bolsheviks. Focusing on the relationship between power brokers and cultural institutions under conditions of state patronage, Kachurin lays to rest the myth of the imposition of control from above upon a victimized artistic community.