History Theatre / StateOfRevolution

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The tsarist regime during World War I.

"State of Revolution" is a 1977 play by [[redirect:Creator/RobertBolt]]. It covers the era of the Russian Revolution from Vladimir Lenin's time in exile to his death in 1924.

!! "State of Revolution" provides examples of:

+AbstractApotheosis: Lenin after his death.
+AnarchyIsChaos: An anonymous character, known simply as the "Anarchist."

+TheAntiNihilist: All the Bolshevik characters.
+BewareTheNiceOnes: Dzerzhinsky
+BewareTheHonestOnes: The other characters feel this way about Lunacharsky.

+BittersweetEnding: At least according to Lunacharsky: "You know, these anniversaries of Comrade Lenin's death are not for those of us who knew him altogether sad occasions. Rather they are happy-sad."
+BookEnds: The play begins and ends with Lunacharsky addressing a meeting of the Young Communists on the anniversary of Lenin's death, after the victory of Stalin.
+BothSidesHaveAPoint
+CantHoldHisLiquor: Mdvani.
+ChessMotifs
+ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Draganov.
+TheCityVersusTheCountry
+CodeOfHonour: Dzerzhinsky.
+ConspiracyTheorist: The "General" is presented this way, blaming the Bolshevik Revolution on a sinister Jewish conspiracy.
+CultOfPersonality: Discussed.
+DarkHorseVictory: Stalin.
+DawnOfAnEra: The October Revolution.

+DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much every character gets their moment, but Lenin above all.
+DirtyCommunists: Rigorously avoided and deconstructed.
+DramaticIrony
+DudeWheresMyRespect?: Stalin.
+EccentricArtist: Gorky.
+EstablishingCharacterMoment: Trotsky first appears onstage announcing the successful Bolshevik insurrection.
+EthicalSlut: Kollontai.
+ExaltedTorturer: Dzerzhinsky.
+TheExile: The play begins with Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Kollontai, and Lunacharsky in exile in Capri, having been forced to flee Russia for revolutionary activity.
+TheExtremistWasRight
+HistoricalFiction: Obviously.
+HoistByHisOwnPetard
+HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Trotsky, naturally, although this is only Foreshadowed and not actually portrayed.
+HowWeGotHere: Lunacharsky's speech to the Young Communists.
+HumbleHero: Lenin.

+InsufferableGenius: Trotsky.
+InternalAffairs: Stalin at certain points.
+InVinoVeritas: Mdvani gets drunk and writes a letter to his wife insulting the Soviet leadership ... which unfortunately for him falls into Stalin's hands.
+JustTheFirstCitizen: Lenin, then Stalin.
+LargeHam: Trotsky.
+LoyalToThePosition: The fictional police agent Draganov: "At your service .... At anybody's service, really. A technician you know, just a technician."
+KnightTemplar: Dzerzhinsky.
+MaliciousSlander: The charge that Lenin is a German agent.
+TheMutiny: Two - the revolts within the military in 1917, and the Kronstadt mutiny in 1921.
+MyCountryRightOrWrong: The Russian "General" is presented this way.

+TheNeidermeyer: The captain killed by Zhelnik and his fellow sailors.
+NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: the Politburo
+PlatoIsAMoron: A very literal example.

+RealPolitik
+RebelliousRebel: A continuing theme, with different characters taking on this role at different points.
+TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Bolt portrays the Bolshevik Revolution in this way to an extent, although quite sympathetic to the necessity of the revolution.
+RomanticismVersusEnlightenment
+RousingSpeech
+SavingTheWorldWithArt: Gorky and Lunacharsky think this is possible. Lenin is quite a bit more skeptical.
+ShamedByTheMob/ShamingTheMob: The Kronstadt mutiny.
+SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVersusFate
+SlidingScaleOfUnavoidableVersusUnforgivable: the whole play revolves around this tension.
+SmartPeoplePlayChess
+SophisticatedAsHell: Lenin.
+TheSovietTwenties
+SpeechImpediment: Lenin after his stroke.
+StartsWithTheirFuneral: Or, more precisely, the anniversary of the funeral.
+TotalitarianUtilitarian: subverted, in that the Bolsheviks (usually presented this way in western fiction) are the heroes of the play and given a fair hearing.
+TragicMistake
+UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans
+VestigialEmpire: The German, Austrian, and Russian empires after World War I.
+WeAREStrugglingTogether: Well, what were you expecting?
+WellIntentionedExtremist: Almost every character at one point or another.
+WrittenByTheWinners: Lunacharsky's speech at the end clearly reflects Stalin's victory and its effects, in contradiction to both what are we shown in the play and Lunacharsky's own earlier opinions.
+YouCantFightFate
+YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Every character sees themselves as defending the true interests of the revolution.
+ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The tsarist regime during World War I.

->"Long live disorder! Long live chaos! Long live anarchism!"

->'''Trotsky''': "Your Commissariat is institutionally corrupt precisely because you are personally, and if I may so, excessively innocent."

Trotsky: "we are embarked upon that violent adventure which goes by the name of Human History! Comrades, they will say we have created chaos, that we have turned society upside down. It is right that the people should take command-and right that you should obey!"

Gorky: "You're a modest megalomaniac."

"...any man who'll stand aside and see his country overrun - is a yellow-bellied bastard!"

Lenin: "Plato was an idealist slave owner."

+AnarchyIsChaos: The unnamed "anarchist."

Trotsky: "Your Commissariat is institutionally corrupt precisely because you are personally, and if I may so, excessively innocent."

----->"Long live disorder! Long live chaos! Long live anarchism!"

"Long live disorder! Long live chaos! Long live anarchism!"

+LoyalToThePosition: Draganov: "At your service .... At anybody's service, really. A technician you know, just a technician."

+SavingTheWorldWithArt: Gorky and Lunacharsky think this is possible. Lenin is quite a bit more skeptical.

+TheExile: The play begins with Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Kollontai, and Lunacharsky in exile in Capri.
+HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Trotsky, naturally.

+YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Every character sees themselves as defending the true interests of the revolution.

"State of Revolution" is a 1977 play by [[redirect:Creator/RobertBolt]].

+AllIssuesArePoliticalIssues
+BewareTheNiceOnes: Lunacharsky

+Book-Ends: The play begins and ends with Lunacharsky addressing a meeting of the Young Communists on the anniversary of Lenin's death, after the victory of Stalin.

+DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much every character gets their moment.

+Realpolitik

+WrittenByTheWinners: Lunacharsky's speech at the end clearly reflects Stalin's victory and its effects, in contradiction to both what are we shown in the play and Lunacharsky's own earlier opinions.

+Book-Ends: The play begins and ends with Lunacharsky addressing a meeting of the Young Communists, after the victory of Stalin.

"State of Revolution" is a 1977 play by [[Creator/RobertBolt]].

"State of Revolution" is a 1977 play by [[redirect:Creator/RobertBolt]].