Revolutionary Dreams

Stite's book received the 1990 Vucinich Prize, awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies for the best book published in 1989 in the field of Russian and East European studies. "The presentation is dynamic, fascinating, indeed brilliant, as well as fully expert...It is also a highly readable book...The book has already received much critical attention and great acclaim...In Revolutionary Dreams, we have a brilliantly presented historical work which is both pioneering and fundamental in its important field." - Nicholas V Riasanovsky (speech made on presentation of the Vucinich Prize).
"This intriguing book will be read with profit not only by historians of Russia but also by anyone interested in utopian visions and utopian experiments. Stites casts his net widely to draw in a varied catch of science fiction writers, architects, efficiency experts, student communards, and Bolshevik leaders. By dissecting their ideas, he provides a provocative analysis of the hopes of the Russian Revolution."--American Historical Review

"A dazzling compendium of the manifold ideas and projects that flashed across Russia after 1917."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"Unlike many previous studies of the subject, this book was not written with a cynical or condescending smirk....Stites is one of a small but increasingly influential group of American Slavists who have dumped the righteous tone of cold war discourse about the Soviet Union. Instead the author delights in revealing diversity."--New Statesmen & Society

"A major contribution to the social and cultural history of the USSR. Moreover, given its lucid and compelling style...there is no reason why [it] will not sell well to a broader reading public."-- Ronald G. Suny, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

"Rich, learned, and stimulating....What Stites captures beautifully in this fine book is the excitement and the sense of possibility of the time when the Russian Revolution could still inspire utopian hopes."--Utopian Studies