Contenu du sommaire

Roland Galharague, A ruse of dialogical reason: Bakhtin and "Western Formalism". Bakhtin' s work possesses specific connections with certain German aesthetic theories elaborated at the turn of the century - the "Western Formalism" -, essentially with the theories of A. Riegl, W. Worringer and H. Wolfflin. This article endeavors to study their nature. A few convergencies appear, first in a common criticism of the aesthetics of empathy, then in the same desire to associate the historical approach to art, and its formal perception. The article further examines the manner in which Bakhtin incorporates these texts into the framework of his work, thus illustrating his own theories on the "speech of the other". Finally, it studies the significance of this resort to aesthetic theories within the general scheme of Bakhtin' s work.

Leonid Heller, The games and stakes of synthetism: Evgenii Zamiatin and his Tale of what is most important. The article analyzes The Tale of what is most important of Evgenii Zamiatin. It endeavors to demonstrate the connection between Zamiatin1 s style (perfectly well illustrated by the tale in question) and the principles set out in the writer's works which develop his theory of "synthetism". An intertextual study of the narrative throws a new light on the tale in which fantastic and realistic elements intermingle to stage a wide conception of the world incorporating references to Nietzsche, Dostoevskii and the occultist ideas of the beginning of the century, as well as to the scientific theories of Mayer, Ostwald and Einstein. Thus the irrational and the rational contrast to create a dynamic framework for a metaphysical vision.

Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu, "Production plays" after 1953: Between humanism and the necessary cruelty. In reaction to the stereotyped phrases conveyed by the plays devoted to production under Stalin, in the 1950's playwrights are interested less in workers than in human beings wronged by the productivist fever of former times. But in the early 1960's, the situation is reversed. Economic difficulties call for a stiffening of discipline in the enterprise. Particularly, the 1965 reform which aims at modernizing production processes implies a change in the style of management. The "production plays" embark upon a second Golden Age, in particular with Dvoretskii, Bokarev, Gel'man who stage pure and tough heroes devoted to the limits of neurosis to the Cause; refusing any compromise they do not endeavor to increase the output but to change the outlooks, to make the workers at all levels more aware of their responsibilities. After several violent attacks of the press against these radical supermen and the reconversion of the main authors to psychological drama, the "production plays" are at present noticeably declining.

Nora Buhks, The device used as message. Remarks on the poetics of Soviet press. The poetics of Soviet journalism ( zhurnalistika) is at present the least known aspect of Soviet mass media and also the least studied in the West. Different from the themes and language which clearly express the ideological message, poetics can transform this message at a profound and unconspicuous level, into a simple composition process or into a device inherent to the adopted style, while the ideological contents can be thus reduced to the border of neutrality. Thus it is the device itself that is turned into a message. The constant elaboration of more efficient processes of communication is the subject of continuous theoretical research in USSR and results of this research are submitted to immediate application in the practice of Soviet mass media.

Helena Stone, The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929. The article attempts to explain the epidemic of homebrewing the Soviet society experienced in the 1920's by linking the production of moonshine with the fluctuation in the grain prices and with the Soviet government's policy towards the peasants in general. Moonshine is interpreted as a byproduct of the confrontation between the peasants and the government.

Alexandre Popovic, Turks of Bulgaria, 1878-1985. The recent campaign of Bulgarization of Turks in Bulgaria which started during the winter 1984-1985 is difficult to understand for a non-initiated observer. The article endeavours to present the situation of the various groups of Muslims in Bulgaria (Turks proper, Tatars, Pomaks, Gipsies) since the creation of the Bulgarian State in 1878 to our days.

Pierre Voillery, Between Russia and Bulgaria. Contribution to the history of the first Bulgarian church in Constantinople. This previously unpublished text of Alexander Exarh pertaining to the foundation of a Bulgarian church in Constantinople constitutes a contribution to the history of the national revival of Bulgaria insofar as it represents a testimony of one of the principal promoters of this event. The author does not supply a new interpretation of this question but clarifies some of its points. He reinstates the role played by A. Exarh in the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian church; he points out the balance of power then prevailing within the Bulgarian community of the Ottoman capital and supplies a better understanding of the rivalry that opposed foreign Powers desirous to acquire the control of this movement; finally he throws a light on the interplay of different factions within the leading circles of the Ottoman Empire, be they Turkish or Greek.

David Robin Watson, The Krasin-Savinkov meeting of 10 December 1921. The significance of the meeting between B.V. Savinkov and Krasin in London on 10 December 1921 described in the letter from Savinkov to Pilsudski printed in vol. XXVI ( 1 ) of the CMRS, can be further illuminated with the help of material from British government sources. It appears that the meeting was probably not due to Krasin, but to Savinkov, and through him to Winston Churchill, the British colonial secretary. It was part of Churchill's campaign to resist the attempts of the Prime Minister, Lloyd George to arrange a rapprochement with the Soviet government, on terms that Churchill thought were unnecessarily favourable to the latter. Ironically Lloyd George, after his own meeting with Savinkov drew the opposite conclusions to those Churchill intended. The British material makes it improbable that Savinkov was in any sense a Soviet agent at this moment.