The Invention of Mikhail Lomonosov A Russian National Myth [Hardcover]

This study explores the evolution of Lomonosovs imposing stature in Russian thought from the middle of the eighteenth century to the closing years of the Soviet period. It reveals much about the intersection in Russian culture of attitudes towards the meaning and significance of science, as well as about the rise of a Russian national identity, of which Lomonosov became an outstanding symbol. Idealized depictions of Lomonosov were employed by Russian scientists, historians, and poets, among others, in efforts to affirm to their countrymen and to the state the pragmatic advantages of science to a modernizing nation. In setting forth this assumption, Usitalo notes that no sharply drawn division can be upheld between the utilization of the myth of Lomonosov during the Soviet period of Russian history and that which characterized earlier views. The main elements that formed the mythology were laid down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Soviet scholars simply added more exaggerated layers to existing representations. [Usitalo's] book masterfully demonstrates the power of national narrative and tradition in constructing history. Steven Usitalo (PhD McGill University) is an associate professor at the Department of History, Northern State University. He is the co-editor with William Benton Whisenhunt of Russian and Soviet History: From the Time of Troubles to the Collapse of the Soviet Union (2008). Steven Usitalo's pioneering book allows us to see the Russian myth of Lomonosov, the great son of the people, in a new light. The author's aim is not to be an iconoclast: he doesn't work to debunk this story of an figure of Russian culture, but rather to open a critical perspective on it, stimulating a sense of complexity and ambivalence. Usitalo's most welcome monograph tracks the ever expanding myth of Lomonosov from its eighteenth-century origins down to its Soviet implosion, clarifying along the way the role the myth played in the modernization of Russian national39