Looking Back on Fall 2015

We are putting a wrap on the semester, but not on our study of Soviet culture. The class worked with the editorial team to select twelve posts representing the chronological span and topical range of the course — from our initial forays into the literature and painting of the Realists through the study of life in communal apartments in the […]

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Everything Was Forever….Prompt 12

Until it was no more.….Our last weekly digest takes up the culture of the collapse of Soviet communism, a way of being that seemed extraordinarily stable, at the same time it displayed perplexing contradictions. For this last post, please use a cultural artifact or phenomenon of the late eighties to examine the end of the Soviet Union. Good inspiration is […]

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Advanced Socialism – Prompt 11

While the long Soviet seventies are sometimes remembered as a time of “stagnation,” they are among the most interesting and under-appreciated periods of the Soviet experience. This week’s post should address the contradictions and unique dynamics of soviet culture and cultural expression in the Brezhnev era. Your post should draw on at least one of the selections in RR pp. […]

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Thawing Out – Prompt #9

The years after Stalin’s death in 1953 brought broad and often contradictory changes to Soviet culture and society. The emptying of the gulag, liberalization of cultural expression, dawn of the space age, and the coming of age of a new generation all contributed to vibrant creativity and heated debate about the future and past. You have a wealth of choices […]

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Finding the Big Deal – Prompt #8

Reconstructing Soviet society after the war involved a complex re-articulation of what communism meant in light of Soviet victory. The regime also needed to finesse the hopes of democratization raised by the war and avert potential conflict over postwar rewards. Vera Dunham has called the resulting social contract “the Big Deal.” For this post please explore a cultural aspect of […]

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The Great Patriotic War – Prompt #7

Courage, resilience and sacrifice defined the Soviet effort to win in World War II. “The Great Patriotic War” became an all-consuming struggle, mobilizing the hopes and fears of the civilian population in equal measure to the military efforts on the battlefield. Indeed the border between battlefield and home front shifted constantly and was often impossible to discern. This week, please […]

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