Bakhtin and the Stalinist Purges
anecdote · literature: Mikhail Bakhtin ·
retold in 11 talks
Boris Groys reveals that Bakhtin’s model for the 'carnival' (suspension of rules) was actually the Stalinist Purges, where the nomenclature becomes the Gulag, showing how transgression is incorporated into the system.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 10
“It was a very concrete model for Bakhtin for a carnival. It was called the Stalinist Purges. This was the true carnival.”Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 12006-05-25 · 1:45:23
“Bakhtin knew it very well, carnival was not liberation. For him Stalinist purges and show trials were a big carnival. Yesterday you were member of the Politburo, today you are an English spy.”
“what was for him carnival it wasn't a liberating experience the secret reference was stalinist purge... this was total chaos in social hierarchy so there is nothing subversive in it”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Mikhail Bakhtin10Boris Groys8Hassan Ngeze2Roman Jakobson2Pierre Bourdieu2Aleksandar Tijanić2André Bazin2Wilhelm Reich2
alongside works
Every retelling 10
Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 12006-05-25 · 1:45:23
Boris Groys reveals that Bakhtin’s model for the 'carnival' (suspension of rules) was actually the Stalinist Purges, where the nomenclature becomes the Gulag, showing how transgression is incorporated into the system., illustrating ideology,cynical system
Newly discovered private papers show Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World was a coded attempt to understand Stalinism, the show trials were literal carnival, yesterday's Politburo member today declared an English spy, the king becomes beggar., illustrating false carnivalesque liberation,Stalinism as carnival
Boris Grois told Žižek that manuscripts found in Kazan (where Bakhtin was exiled) reveal that his secret reference for 'carnival' was the Stalinist purge, the total inversion of social hierarchy where today's Central Committee member is tomorrow's gulag prisoner., illustrating carnival as revolutionary paradigm,critique of Bakhtin
Boris Groys found Bakhtin's private archives and discovered that the universal message of his private notes was that the great carnival he never dared mention publicly was the Stalinist purges, today a king-member of the Politburo, tomorrow an English spy., illustrating carnival's dark side,Stalinism,appearance and power
Boris Groys revealed that Bakhtin (exiled to Kazan) did not celebrate carnival but coded Stalinist purges in his Rabelais book, the real carnival was the purges where today's Politburo member is tomorrow's Gulag traitor., illustrating totalitarianism and coded meaning,carnival / false transgression,surplus enjoyment / ideological bribe
Boris Groys found Bakhtin's 1930s manuscript notes revealing that his carnival theory was secretly modeled on Stalinist purges, the ultimate carnival where today's party secretary becomes tomorrow's enemy of the people., illustrating critique of carnival liberation theory,totalitarian enjoyment,Adorno on fascist bribery through enjoyment