Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900 (Cambridge Russian Paperbacks)

By Richard Stites

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052136986X
• ISBN13: 9780521369862
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

ends with the Soviet Union's end

The book's story ends around 1990, when the Soviet Union collapsed. In that sense, even the last section reads as from another time. Largely, thus, the book is an account of Soviet propaganda. Describing the various media campaigns instituted by the Kremlin to mobilise public opinion. We see how in the desperate years of World War 2, that appeals to Rodina were used, as a traditional rallying point. There is some account of independent cultural activities. Very little operating space was permitted for these by the authorities. Until the 80s and perestroika and glasnost arose. Surprisingly, the index omits any mention of samizdat. Yet this was the hallmark of much dissident actions.