CONTRIBUTI / 9 / Natalya Khokholova /
This article addresses the role of icons and symbols in the Soviet Revolution. At first it will be analyzed the political power of myths and symbols; then I will concentrate on the Revolutionary myth from the XVII century on; at last the specific case of SSSR will be taken into consideration. In fact, as far as October Revolution is concerned, traditional iconography and symbols played a relevant role as for both the ‘worker’ and the ‘leader’ images. I will show how – after a first period of incubation – imagery was used by Bolsheviks to represent Soviet auto–consciousness in metaphysical terms. In conclusion, it will be analyzed the ‘apocalypse’ concept in relation with the characters of Revolution that were previously exposed.
