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Name: Without the Banya We Would Perish: A History of the Russian Bathhouse: 9780195395488: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com
Price: 39.84 USD
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Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)

Ethan Pollock

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Without the Banya We Would Perish: A History of the Russian Bathhouse 1st Edition

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When so much in Russia has changed, the banya remains. For over one thousand years Russians of every economic class, political party, and social strata have treated bathing as a communal activity integrating personal hygiene and public health with rituals, relaxation, conversations, drinking, political intrigue, business, and sex. Communal steam baths have survived the Mongols, Peter the Great, and Soviet communism and remain a central and unifying national custom. Combining the ancient elements of earth, water, and fire, the banya paradoxically cleans bodies and spreads disease, purifies and defiles, creates community and underscores difference.

Here, Ethan Pollock tells the history of this ubiquitous and enduring institution. He explores the bathhouse's role in Russian identity, following public figures (from Catherine the Great to Rasputin to Putin), writers (such as Chekhov and Dostoevsky), foreigners (including Mark Twain and Casanova), and countless other men and women into the banya to discover the meanings they have found there. The story comes up to the present, exploring the continued importance of banyas in Russia and their newfound popularity in cities across the globe. Drawing on sources as diverse as ancient chronicles, government reports, medical books, and popular culture, Pollock shows how the banya has persisted, adapted, and flourished in the everyday lives of Russians throughout wars, political ruptures, modernization, and urbanization.

Through the communal bathhouse, Without the Banya We Would Perish provides a unique perspective on the history of the Russian people.

ISBN-10

0195395484
ISBN-13

978-0195395488
Edition

1st
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

September 3, 2019
Language

English
Dimensions

9.3 x 1.2 x 6.2 inches
Print length

360 pages
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Michael Nordskog
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Bryon MacWilliams
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Paperback
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Andrei Kovalevskii
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Dr. Lawrence Wilson
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"What does it mean to be clean? That is the fundamental question underlying Ethan Pollock's fascinating study of the Russian banya, or bathhouse. For Russians, getting clean is not merely about personal hygiene...As Pollock's book makes clear, the banya, with its emphasis on sociability and community, is more than a physical space. It is a state of mind, a place where one can 'find meaning in the world.'" -- Darra Goldstein, Times Literary Supplement

"As Ethan Pollock explains in his delightful, if sometimes nauseating, history of the banya, Russians take pride in this peculiar institution, which they long regarded as intrinsic to Russian identityâ.For Russians, the banya purges the soul." -- Gary Saul Morson, Wall Street Journal

"Ethan Pollock's compelling and imaginative study shows that because it has been a constant physical presence through the ages, the banya offers a fascinating prism through which to track the social and cultural history of Russiaâ.Without the Banya We Would Perish is a nuanced and imaginative exploration of the tensions between salvation and perdition that have haunted Russia's history across the centuries." -- Daniel Beer, Literary Review

"In Pollock's account, the banya is an inarguably quintessential Russian institution, but also reveals perennial institutional dysfunction." -- Randy Rosenthal, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Pollock has produced a rarity: a work of solid scholarship that is also an elegant page-turner. It traces the history of the Russian steam bath all the way back to the Middle Ages, exploring how its image and function have shifted over time." -- Maria Lipman, Foreign Affairs

"Pollock tells the long story of the banya in chronological order, exploring countless nuances of social reality and artistic representation, gathering its recurring themes....In the whimsical epilogue, Pollock immerses himself in the illusion of the banya's timelessness. His friends are transformed, in his daydream, into the many historical figures, writers, and fictional characters invoked in the pages in between, all bathing with him in the parilka." -- Rachel Polonsky, New York Review of Books

"original and engaging ... this is a fascinating book that will be of interest to historians of culture and medicine of both the imperial and Soviet periods. The price point, the accessible style (minimal Russian and developed passages of historical context), and the interesting subject matter make it an affordable choice for undergraduate courses as well as graduate reading seminars. For historians of Russian culture, it is a welcome exploration of an ubiquitous practice." -- Tricia Starks, Russian Review

"Pollock immerses his reader in a deep, stimulating history of the Russian banya. The jury may be out on the banya's salutary effects on bathers' health, but there's no question that Pollock's book is a boon to Russian studies." -- Eliot Borenstein, author of Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism

"Sacred, inspiring, magical; or indecent, barbarous, and outmoded? Ethan Pollock's fascinating and vivid study of the banya answers-without the banya we would perish! Peopled with courtiers and warriors, doctors and literati, commissars and countless bathhouse attendants, this book entertains as it rejuvenates your senses." -- Dan Healey, University of Oxford

"In Ethan Pollock's creative telling, the long history of the Russian banya bubbles with insights on health, hygiene, faith, leisure, and the nation, among other topics. This is steamy history of the best kind! A wonderful book."--Willard Sunderland, University of Cincinnati

"In this bracingly original and eloquently argued book, Ethan Pollock traces the history of one of the few constants in Russia's turbulent past, the bathhouse, which survived Peter the Great's westernization and Lenin and Stalin's sovietization. Opening this book, readers encounter an intriguing cast of characters-from tsars and serfs to Scythians and New Russians-philosophizing, communing, and sweating together. Pollock's masterful storytelling highlights the banya's vibrant historicity, amid its constancy, and illuminates thousands of years of Russian history one steam-filled room at a time."--Alexis Peri, author of The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad

"Ethan Pollock takes us to the banya for a good long soak. His book follows the history of Russia's most beloved public institution from its steamy beginnings in the Slavic wildwood to the era of Gorky Park and beyond. With its emphasis on the banya in Russian literature, culture and the arts, this is a book with something for everyone. True banya lovers will regret only that there is not yet a waterproof edition."--Catherine Merridale, author of Lenin on the Train

Book Description

A sweeping history of the communal bathhouse, a space that has always been intertwined with Russian identity.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (September 3, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195395484
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195395488
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1.2 x 6.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,153 in Customs & Traditions Social Sciences
- #1,321 in History of Medicine (Books)
- #2,932 in Russian History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 10 ratings

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Ethan Pollock

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Ethan Pollock is Professor of History and Slavic Studies at Brown University. He has been a fellow at the George Washington University, Columbia University, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, and the European University Institute.

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Maria Kurnaya

Extremely detailed research! Well done! A pleasure to read!

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2021

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Extremely detailed research! Well done! A pleasure to read!

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2020

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I like reading Russian history (I’m not a Russian agent!). Thiis book reminded me of much I had forgotten from college—and it introduced a lot more. Who’d ever think of writing a book with a BANYA as the central idea. But it was very enlightening. I especially enjoyed the discussion about “cleanliness” through the ages. And the role lowly banyas have played in Russian history.

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Mikkel Aaland

I love this book!

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2020

In the last few years, the banya is finally getting the serious attention it deserves in the English language from westerners who have lived extensively in Russia and speak the language. The latest book to bring the story of one of the world’s most passionate bathing cultures to the West is scholar Ethan Pollock’s, Without the Banya We Would Perish, A History of the Russian Bathhouse (Oxford Press 2019). Pollock’s scholarly study fills a huge gap in the West’s historical knowledge of the Russian style of bathing. Pollock lived in Russia and speaks fluent Russian. His book cites over 1000 sources and offers over 38 pages of references. Call me a sweat nerd, but with every page I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I love this book and applaud Pollock for pouring his heart and soul into this important subject.

Pollock’s book traces the beginning of banya culture from pre-history nomadic tribal use to today, a span of thousands of years of nearly uninterrupted popularity. His foundational book even reaches outside the borders of what we now call Russia and is full of deep insights into understanding the demise of bathing in Medieval Europe. I always thought the influence of the Church and fear of disease led to the declining popularity of the bath, but it turns out that the introduction of linen underwear also has a lot to do with it: washing cloth was a lot less controversial than washing the body.

The book is also a source of inspiration. Time after time, throughout history, the banya faced opposition, early on by the church and later by reform-minded modernists. But the banya always persevered. Pollock cites a time in March 1932, at the time of the outset of a catastrophic famine, when experts convened in Moscow to discuss the future of Soviet bathing. On one side were advocates of the shower, an industrialized form of bathing that had recently become popular in Europe and the US. “Some of the technical experts who had recently toured Germany’s bathing facilities,” Pollock writes, “concluded that showers were easier to operate, allowed more people to clean themselves in a shorter amount of time, and were more sanitary… The defense of the country [they argued] called for the building of showers, not traditional banyas.”

Their argument fell on mostly deaf ears. The banya was too solidly engrained in the culture. Even in the cases when the government managed to build shower installations, they were largely ignored in favor of traditional banyas.

As a side note, during the turn of the 20th century, in the United States, my hero J.J. Cosgrove argued in his book, Design of the Turkish Bath, that the steam bath should be the public bath of preference and not the shower. Unfortunately, his argument suffered a different fate.(Cosgrove’s 1908 book has been reproduced and is now available for sale.)

The latest challenge to the banya came after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Explains Pollock, many banyas became places for wealthy New Russians and gangsters to gather. “Luxury, not spiritual or physical health, was the point.” Push back was swift. Writers and journalists decried the corruption and positioned the banya as a place not only to clean the body but to nurture the soul and create a healthy atmosphere for everyone. (The reality, of course, writes Pollock, was the banya always had its negative aspects but now it was possible to talk about it openly.)

Today in Russia, where the majority of the population enjoys indoor plumbing, the banya is no longer necessary for hygiene. But nurtured by a long history, encouraged for its health benefits, and advocated by leaders such as Putin himself as a place to “heal and to rejuvenate oneself,” the banya continues to define and guide modern Russia.

This book is obviously a labor of love. It would be great if you could show your appreciation for Pollock's work by ordering the books from your favorite independent bookstore or here on Amazon. I am sure your support will be greatly appreciated.

4 people found this helpful

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Ian Haberman

The Russian banya

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

Fascinating and detailed story about an important component of Russian life.

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