Red Virgin Soil

Book excerpt: "Red Virgin Soil is a detailed study of the eponymous journal that was the most significant Soviet literary journal of the 1920's. The journal published belles lettres, theory, and criticism and represented the first serious attempt in Russia in nearly half a century to shape an entire generation of writers, readers, and critics through the energy and authority of such a forum." "Maguire's work is also a survey of Soviet literary culture in that critical period between the end of the Civil War and the onslaught of the Stalinist era, a period when writers could still engage in public debate about literature's role in the building of a revolutionary culture." --Book Jacket.