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.
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.
"In his richly detailed survey of Russian popular culture since 1900, Richard Stites uses largely ignored sources--detective stories, science fiction, rock-n-roll lyrics, jokes and circus and vaudeville routines--to reveal a side of Russian life largely unknown in the West. And yet, this is not a trivial book...Its great virtue, however, is to illuminate an important and largely unknown dimension of Russia's social history. Serious, but by no means solemn, Stites's book is accessible to anyone interested in learning more about a country and a people that have obsessed and confused us for almost a century." Washington Post Book World "With this book, Richard Stites again demonstrates that he is one of the most creative and original historians currently writing in the field of twentieth-century Russian history...Although the book is relatively short, it is a big book--big in ideas and in the extraordinary richness of the material. Stites writes with authority, verve, and humor. His book is required reading for anyone curious about Russia's cultural life in the twentieth century." Victoria E. Bonnell, American Historical Review "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
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