How Russia Learned to Talk

Stephen Lovell has given us the first study in any language of Russia’s spoken political discourse. The topic is important because as Russia and subsequently the Soviet Union hurtled from autocracy toward authoritarianism under the Bolsheviks, the words of leaders, and ultimately the supreme leader, attained the power to shape destinies. Lovell describes the antecedents to this power, from early forums for political speech (for example, the Zemstvos, city Dumas, law courts of the 1860s) to those of the new order of early Soviet Russia. He documents the Orthodox Church’s promotion of charismatic and eloquent preachers and efforts to shape the sermons of the parish clergy. He stresses the importance of the new technology of stenography, which facilitated the circulation of important speeches in print, and even occasionally stimulated some back and forth (also in print) between speakers and readers. Stenography served as the bridge between oratory and rapidly expanding

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