Devastation and Laughter: Satire, Power, and Culture in the Early Soviet State (1920s–1930s)

"Gérin’s work is theoretically informed but not overburdened, her focus being cultural history and close reading of visual materials. It is in the selection and dissection of such print materials as posters and journals that Gérin truly excels."

Tom Haxhi, Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University, Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol 61 no 3

"Deploying both contemporary and historical theories of the comic, Gérin makes a persuasive case for the continuity of Russian humor culture through the centuries."

Maya Vinokour, Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, Slavic Review

"Gérin reveals that the Bolsheviks understood theories of laughter and sought to shape it for their own purposes. Satire and its laughter, they believed, could destroy the old bourgeois attitudes needed to create new people."

Stephen M. Norris, Department of History, Miami University, American Historical Review

"Gérin’s book, thoroughly researched, convincingly argued, and lavishly illustrated, sharpens the appetite for more discussions on satire and on caricature, as much from the early Soviet era as from the years of the Cold War and perestroika."

Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, Birkbeck College, University of London, H-SHERA

"Gérin’s book tackles many interesting issues that can inspire future humour-related research across a variety of disciplines."

Anastasiya Fiadotava, University of Tartu, European Journal of Humour Research

"Carefully documented, Gerin’s book provides a very precious contribution on Soviet visual humour."

Ada Ackerman, THALIN/CNRS, RACAR

"A valuable resource for teachers of Russian culture and students interested in the Soviet arts."

Olga Velikanova, University of North Texas, Kritika

" Ranging over a wide area, this book takes a fresh approach to an important area of European cultural history and illumines it from a new angle, inviting the reader to revise stereotypical views on the place of laughter in Russian culture of the early Soviet period."

Lesley Milne, professor emerita, Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham

"Engaging and lively, Devastation and Laughter is a major contribution to research, and will be of interest to historians and art historians. Gérin draws from many artistic disciplines to reveal the pervasiveness of 1920s and 1930s Soviet visual culture, most notably in the propaganda campaigns which took various mediums, including posters and film."

Alison Rowley, president, Canadian Association of Slavists, professor, Department of History, Concordia University