Russian Popular Culture
Entertainment and Society since 1900

Richard Stites (Author)

9780521369862, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 August 1992

304 pages, 28 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.554 kg

"Richard Stites savors the historian's calling as storyteller. Like his earlier works on women's emancipatory movements in Imperial and Soviet Russia and on utopian dreams and practices in the revolutionary years, this account of popular entertainment from the waning years of the tsarist regime to the last years of the Communist order is rich in narrative detail and is engagingly presented....Stites must be praised for achieving this in a book that is both useful and a pleasure to 'consume.'" Mark D. Steinberg, Journal of Modern History

This book presents a side of Russian life that is largely unknown to the West - the world of popular culture. By surveying detective and science fiction, popular songs, jokes, box office movie hits, stage, radio and television, Professor Richard Stites introduces the people and cultural products that are household words to Russian people. Spanning the entire twentieth century, the author examines the subcultures that draw upon and enrich Russian popular culture. He explores the relationship between popular culture and the national and social values of the masses, including their heroes and myths, and assesses the phenomenon of the celebrity from the silent screen star to the latest rock music idol. Richard Stites pays particular attention to the dramatic battle between elite and popular culture and to the intervention of revolutions, wars, and the state in the production and control of this culture.

List of illustrations
Preface and acknowledgements
Introduction
1. In old Russia 1900–1917
2. Revolutionary reassortment 1917–1927
3. Stalin by starlight 1928–1941
4. Holy War and Cold War 1941–1953
5. Springtime for Khrushchev 1953–1964
6. The Brezhnev culture wars 1964–1984
7. Perestroika and the people's taste 1985
Greetings and farewell
Glossary
Bibliography
Discography
Filmography
Videography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]