Cover Osteuropa 1/2009

In Osteuropa 1/2009

The Literarisation of Historiography
Moscow 1937: Karl Schlögel’s Masterpiece

Ulrich Schmid


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

That historiography tells stories has been known since the appearance of Hayden White’s methodological investigations at the latest. Only most recently, however, have historians assumed the consequences of this insight: Carsten Goehrke built fictitious scenes of pre-modern Russia into his work Russischer Alltag. Karl Schlögel goes one step farther. He has construed his new book Terror und Traum: Moskau 1937 as a literarily stylised grand narrative with tragic protagonists, thrilling story lines, and spectacular settings.

(Osteuropa 1/2009, pp. 61–68)