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Peter the Great
Alexandr Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman: A Petersburg Tale" Russia (1833)
Pushkin expresses his negative views of Peter the Great's reforms and legacy while living during the time of his greatest prodigy, Catherine the Great. Peter's attempts to revolutionize and Westernize Russia lead to the destruction of the traditional Russian heritage and an eternal search for self identity. Pushkin is just one of many Slavophiles who vehemently rejected Peter's reforms. -
The Industrial Revolution
John Stuart Mill, "Principles of Political Economy", Britain (1848)
Mill examines how the Industrial Revolution transformed the economy and rate of economic growth in Britain. He examined ways the landed, capitalist, and laboring classes produced and distributed national output and modeled the effects of population and international trade. Principles of Political Economy was used as the standard texts by most universities well into the beginning of the twentieth century. -
The French Revolution
Olympe de Gouges, "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen", France (1791)
The French Revolution succeded in revolutionizing many aspects of society. However, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman is based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and seeks to expose the failure of the French Revolution in acheiving gender equality. Women continue to be oppressed under the post-revolutionary society for many centuries, as they were under the Old Regime. -
Revolutions of 1848
Sandor Petofi, "The National Song of Hungary" Austria-Hungary (1848)
The song is said to have inspired the revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary that grew into a war for independence from the Austrian Empire. Petofi marched around the city, liberating political prisoners and declaring the end of Austrian rule. Inspired by the revolution in France which overthrew the monarchy and created Second French Republic. Uprisings in German states also acheived temporary constitutional reforms in Prussia. -
World War I
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, "La Mitrailleuse", Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London (1915)
Created in 1915 by British Futurist artist Christopher Nevinson after his stint as an ambulance driver on the Western Front. It is hailed as being the most accurate representation of the atrocities of war and how WWI completely revolutionized warfare. Depicts the radicalization of violence as 3 soldiers man the weapon while another lies dead beside them. -
The Russian Revolution
Aleksandr Rodchenko , "Non-Objective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black)", Oil on canvas (1918)
The Russian Revolution transformed all aspects of society, political and cultural life of the nation, especially art and aesthetics. Europe had already caught "Russian Fever" in the 19th century thanks to Chekhov and Dostoyevsky. Constructivism rejected previous art as an expression of bourgeois-dominated society and attempted to usher in the new Communist stage of civilization through art.
