Karnawał rewolucji (Olga Sławnikowa, 2017) .......... 113

A CARNIVAL OF REVOLUTION
(Olga Sławnikowa, 2017)

In this paper, the heritage of the October Revolution is considered basing on Olga Sławnikowa’s book symbolically entitled – 2017. The novel was awarded a prestige „Russian Booker” prize in 2006, but it is not a classic anti-utopian novel. The author calls her writing „reliable fantastic fiction”. The name of the book – pointing to the time of the novel’s events – is an artistic choice in order to make a connection between the significant processes which determined the development of Soviet reality and latest changes in contemporary Russia. This article is focused on the following problems: relationship between urbanity of the Soviet order and the laws of nature (a Ural’s provincial city is used as an illustration of these processes); the mental opposition of the inhabitants of the mountain region towards the colonizing action from the Soviet times; the post-Soviet transformation of the province which nowadays is easily influenced by commercialization, multimedia culture and entertainment industry; the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution by a masqueraded carnival of historical reconstruction. This element is compared with carnivalization of the celebration of the Victory Day on May 9 noticeable over the last several years in Russia (i.e. selling military uniforms, costumes and artifacts from the Great Patriotic War to both adults and children, but also ribbons on bottles of vodka). However, the celebration of the Victory Day has become the consolidating myth for the Russian society and this function is not played by the Russian Revolution. Events of the 1917 have become the beginning of different social/political divisions and indeed divide the Russian society instead of uniting it.