Wherever there is revolution, there are artists and intellectuals working behind the scenes to rouse the people into action. In colonial America, it was \u201cCommon Sense\u201d by Thomas Paine and \u201cConcord Hymn\u201d by Emerson. In revolutionary Russia, Dmitry Furmanov was responsible for creating the call to action in his novel \u201cChapaev.\u201d Typical of the World War I era, it glorifies battle and celebrates the power of youth. Furmanov depicts \u201ccourageous\u201d young men \u201cindissolubly linked together,\u201d motivating Russia\u2019s youth to respond to a higher calling ((Dmitry Furmanov, Chapev, (1923)). Chapaev is unique in Russia\u2019s class-based society as it calls to everyone; the misfits, the poor, the hungry, the handsome, and the well-to-do are all welcome under Chapeau\u2019s watchful eye. Furmanov creates a romanticized story where even the peasants can find food and happiness – appealing to the many who had nothing under the current regime and inspiring even more to rise up and fight.
\nSimilarly, the poem \u201cWe Grow Out of Iron,\u201d by Aleksei Gastev, also uses powerful language and wording to create images of the weak becoming powerful and overthrowing their oppressors. Gastev, himself a factory worker, manipulates the vision of the poem by choosing a relatively low level of syntax, while still planting the idea of revolution in a manner that relates to the audience. His word choice, particularly in the fourteenth line, when he says \u201cI too am growing shoulders of steel and arms immeasurably strong,\u201d empowers the people ((Aleksel Gastev, We Grow Out or Iron, (1914)). \u201cI too\u201d has a twofold meaning – not only is he participating in the revolution, just like the commoners, the sailors, and the peasants, but he is struggling, yet overcoming, setting the expectation that others will too. Authors like Furmanov and Gastev were the driving force behind the revolution – not the revolution of the intellectuals, who tended to plan without action, but the revolution of the people, who stirred at the calling of freedom and the end of tyranny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wherever there is revolution, there are artists and intellectuals working behind the scenes to rouse the people into action. In colonial America, it was \u201cCommon Sense\u201d by Thomas Paine and \u201cConcord Hymn\u201d by Emerson. In revolutionary Russia, Dmitry Furmanov was … Continue reading