Universal Postcommunism: Kojève and Agamben on the End of History

Abstract

Uryupinsk, an entirely unremarkable small provincial town located in Russia’s Volgograd region, has become the privileged toponym of the backwater province to most Russians. This nationwide notoriety is owing to a Soviet-era joke, whose significance far exceeds the ungainly enterprise of ridiculing provinciality. During an examination in the obligatory discipline of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) at a Moscow university the professor confronts a hapless student with question after question that the latter cannot answer. Increasingly annoyed, he asks what appears to be the simplest possible question that would enable him to let the student go with the lowest passing grade: ‘When did the latest Congress of the Party take place?’ ‘What party?’, the student inquires. ‘What do you mean, what Party? Our party, the Party of Lenin!’, responds the surprised professor. ‘Who is Lenin?’, asks the uncomprehending student. Losing his patience, the professor raises his voice: ‘Lenin, the Leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution!’ For the first time in this conversation, the student loses his deadpan expression and actually appears interested: ‘Oh, has there been a revolution? When did that happen?’ The exasperated professor cannot believe his ears and asks where the student comes from. ‘I am from Uryupinsk’, replies the student proudly. The professor silently observes the student for a while and then brusquely waves his papers off the table, stands up and says: ‘Enough! I am giving it all up and moving to Uryupinsk’.