February and October 1917 in the “Samizdat” of Petrograd Students

• Main Author: Yulia Anatolyevna Rusina
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ural Federal University Press 2017-10-01
• Series: Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки
• Subjects: Февральская революция 1917 г.; Октябрьская революция 1917 г.; студенческая самодеятельная периодика; Петроградский институт инженеров путей сообщения Императора Александра I; исторический источник.
• Online Access: https://journals.urfu.ru/index.php/Izvestia2/article/view/2616
• ISSN: 2227-2283; 2587-6929

This article introduces a previously unpublished historical source, i.e. a self-published magazine of the students of the Emperor Alexander I Petrograd Institute of Transport Engineers which was published between 1917 and 1918. The informational diversity of this periodical and, as a result, its historical potential are determined by the time and place of its appearance and by its authors’ knowledge. The magazine reflects the generational view on the events of the February and October Revolutions, the dynamics in the ideas and expectations of young people who found themselves in the centre of global historical changes. A scrupulous content analysis of twelve issues of the magazine demonstrates how the pre-revolutionary educational system was broken and new social values appeared which led to the well-known mythologisation of the homo soveticus notion. On the other hand, the periodical established by the students of the two revolution waves, portrays the social and cultural, emotional and psychological image of the generation, whose personal development coincided with the perishing of one empire and the emergence of another, this generation being “erased” from the pages of Soviet history. The term Samizdat regarding the magazine Topor i Yakor’ (Eng. Axe and Anchor) is given in its relative meaning, that is why inverted commas are used in the title. In this case, the properties of Samizdat (illegality, lack of censorship) are absent. On the contrary, the magazine was approved by the administration of the institute and was supported financially and in many other ways. Topor i Yakor’ is rather an amateur periodical, whereas its correlation with Samizdat can be identified only due to the initiative and the voluntary effort of its creators.