AIDS and the “high-risk” group.

  (Image source: NPR) "When my doctor indicated to me in December of 1981 that I was immune deficient I said, "What does that mean?" And he said, "We don't know." "The effect of being told that I was immune deficient was devastating. I called my parents and said "I am going to die." (Two …

The Theatre Thaw(?)

  During the period of Stalinism theatre, and other arts were largely homogenized to express Soviet Realism, (see my post on the renowned artist Deyneka) However, at the beginning of destalinization  the ice of homogeneity began to melt. By the mid 1950s there was an obvious struggle against conformity in the arts. The theater, free …

The Girl with the Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle.

From a western perspective, female roles during wartime are kept nearly exclusively to the home front. Women are placed in temporary industry jobs in order to advance the war effort, which is where iconic personas such as Rosie the Riveter emerge. However, this concept of females roles vary on the eastern front. During World War …

Art imitates reality. (We hope)

Aleksandr Deyneka (Alexander Deineka), most famous for his work as a Soviet realist painter, aids us in viewing Soviet culture as it changes dramatically from the October Revolution to the onset of World War II.  Deyneka is a prominent figure head in the "art to the masses" movement in the 1920s, he creates mosaics for …

The July Days

The July Days, a string of insurrections in Petrograd, Russia during the first week of July in 1917, quickly became a flashpoint for the already coming tide of revolution. In the masses protesting the newly organized provisional government were soldiers and workers who were met with force by the provisional governments loyal troops. As seen …

View of Kasli

This 1910 photograph is the "View of Kasli" by photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Kasli, now in present day Chelyabinsk Oblast. I find this picture fascinating as it's description pointed out the predominate points of the image, and the town, to be the massive churches (two on the left in the background, and in looking at the …

About me.

Hello! I am Garrett Whitlock, a queer writer and photographer. In May of 2018 I will graduate from Virginia Tech, completing my coursework as a History major and Mandarin Chinese minor. This blog traces what I learned throughout my last semester in 20th Century Soviet History., from the turn of the century revolutions to the …