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, the stage, radio and television, Richard Stites introduces the people and cultural products that are household words to the Soviet people. He demonstrates how popular culture has over the past century had more impact on the lives of Russian people and reveals more about their lives than the works of giants of high culture. Richard Stites, Professor of History at Georgetown University, is the author of several books, including Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"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
"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
Book Description
A side of Russian life largely unknown to the West--the world of popular culture--is presented by surveying detective and science fiction, popular songs, jokes, box office movie hits, the stage, radio and television.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Some key ambiguities,
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This review is from: Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900 (Cambridge Russian Paperbacks) (Paperback)
In an otherwise detailed account, questions remain about what wasn't included, and the extent to which this material lived in "popular culture." One thinks, for example, of the film "Repentance," which, when Gorbaschev allowed its release, had the whole country walking around in a daze for months. And where do underground classics like "Master and Marguerita" sit? We're left with some ambiguity.
4.0 out of 5 stars
ends with the Soviet Union's end,
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This review is from: Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900 (Cambridge Russian Paperbacks) (Paperback)
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.
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First Sentence:
The Russian Empire in the years 1900-1917 entered the throes of industrialization, urbanization, parliamentary life, agrarian change, ethnic and class tensions, two revolutions, and two wars. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
red detective story, mass song, folk orchestra, folk ensembles, urban popular culture, commercial popular culture, gypsy songs Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
World War, Soviet Union, New York, United States, Mark Bernes, Stenka Razin, Count Amori, The Bat, Viktor Tsoy, Virgin Lands, Alexei Tolstoy, Alla Pugacheva, Arkady Raikin, Happy-Go-Lucky Guys, Irving Berlin, Moscow Does Not Believe, People's Houses, Song of the Motherland, Boris Grebenshchikov, Communist Party, Glenn Miller, Igor Moiseev, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Red Square, Soviet Far East New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The Russian Empire in the years 1900-1917 entered the throes of industrialization, urbanization, parliamentary life, agrarian change, ethnic and class tensions, two revolutions, and two wars. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
red detective story, mass song, folk orchestra, folk ensembles, urban popular culture, commercial popular culture, gypsy songs Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
World War, Soviet Union, New York, United States, Mark Bernes, Stenka Razin, Count Amori, The Bat, Viktor Tsoy, Virgin Lands, Alexei Tolstoy, Alla Pugacheva, Arkady Raikin, Happy-Go-Lucky Guys, Irving Berlin, Moscow Does Not Believe, People's Houses, Song of the Motherland, Boris Grebenshchikov, Communist Party, Glenn Miller, Igor Moiseev, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Red Square, Soviet Far East New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 70
books:
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47
books
cite this book:
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- The Culture of the Stalin Period by Hans Gunther on 5 pages
- The Red Screen: Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema by Anna Lawton on 5 pages
- Peter the First by Alexei Tolstoy on page 68, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Russian Revolution (The Russian series) by Pavel Nikolaevich Mil-I-Ukov in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- History of the Soviet Union by Geoffrey Hosking in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 70 books this book cites
- Small Comrades: Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932 (Studies in the History of Education) by Lisa A. Kirschenbaum in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Collective and the Individual in Russia: A Study of Practices (Studies on the History of Society and Culture) by Oleg Kharkhordin on page 316, and Back Matter
- The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka & Politics in Late Imperial Russia by Patricia Herlihy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture) by Nicholas Rzhevsky on page 155, and page 157
- An Introduction to Film Studies by Jill Nelmes on page 444, and page 447
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