Overview

Russians are a very creative people. Their contributions in literature and poetry alone are world treasures: Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Akhmatova, Babel, Nabokov, Pasternak. However, this creativity has flowed in narrow rivers, not broad seas, and has been fulfilled in some areas but not in others. Many creative Russians have been forgotten. Why have Russians produced such brilliant and famous works in literature, music, and the arts, and yet so few internationally known works in other areas of creative activity, such as commercial technology? This book is an attempt to explain these striking differences: the blossoming and recognition of Russian creativity in some areas and its failure to be appreciated in others, including the surprising effects of repression and censorship on the success of creative endeavors.

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9798887198231

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Reviews

“Loren Graham's long career as a historian of science and technology in Russia and the Soviet Union had enormous influence on the way scholars understand the development of scientific thought and scientific innovation in autocratic societies. Through his large body of published work and his training of several generations of students, he shaped the whole way experts nowadays think about these subjects. Of particular importance, Graham explained how, even when living under conditions of stifling repression and murderous state violence, Russian and Soviet mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and engineers managed to achieve great strides in scientific research and technological adaptation.” —Mark Kramer, Director of Cold War Studies and Senior Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University “Celebrated as the ‘dean of the history of Russian and Soviet science,’ Loren Graham generously shared his insights with generations of students—including myself, to my great good fortune. For him, history is an enigma that calls for paradoxical answers. His writing challenges stereotypes, sparks debate, and inspires further inquiry. The hallmarks of his scholarship—its extraordinary breadth and boldness of argument—are vividly displayed in this book.” —Slava Gerovitch, MIT, author of From Newspeak to Cyberspeak and Soviet Space Mythologies

Author Information

Loren R. Graham was an acclaimed author and one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of science and technology in Russia and the Soviet Union. Loren spent the bulk of his academic career—more than three decades—as a professor at MIT in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), while also holding a joint appointment at the Davis Center at Harvard University.

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