Gorbachev was known for being more of a lenient ruler of the Soviets. He issued a number of reforms and policies that were much different from his predecessors, including glasnost and the tearing down of the Berlin wall. With these leniencies, the Soviet people were able to express themselves much more fully, especially with film. For years the …
Continue reading “Soviet Movies Finally Released to the Public”
For my last post, I decided to talk about The Americans, one of my favorite shows currently airing on television. The show follows Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, two undercover Soviet spies who live in Fall Church, VA (not only is that… Continue Reading →
There’s actually quite a lot of sex going on in the USSR and without protection. Although the famous phrase “In the Soviet Union there is no sex” is just a misunderstanding on the part of a participant in a “Spacebridge,” a series … Continue reading →
When most people think of Russians, they think of vodka as well, but, it’s not even their official beverage, tea is, as shown in my first post. In the 70s and 80s, alcohol played such a role in premature deaths, violence, child abuse, and suicide, that, in 1985, new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started an… Continue reading Shots of Death… or Vodka →
It’s common knowledge that Vodka is a Russian specialty, and the Russian’s knew how to have a good time no matter the time of day or reason to celebrate. Blogger Katelin writes in her post ‘War on…Alcohol?’ about the Soviet Union’s struggle with their population that was showing some unfortunate signs of alcoholism, such as … Continue reading Sober Up, Comrade! →
Arguably the most significant and impactful event of the Brezhnev era was the legalization of the production of blue jeans (jk). Though many universities and workplaces had previously forbidden the wearing of jeans, the USSR embraced the denim craze, commissioning the companies Levi Strauss, Wrangler, and Lee to manufacture jeans in the Soviet Union in 1979. This […]
For my blog post of the week, I wanted briefly look at censorship in 1960’s Soviet Russia and how censorship effected The Master and Margarita, a book by that many consider to be one of the greatest pieces of literature of the… Continue Reading →
Most people of our time, including Google, think of an Apple application when discussing (or searching) the term “Time Machine.” However, during the timeframe of the sixties in Soviet Russia,
Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Zhdanov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevik) in 1915. He quickly rose up through the party ranks in Leningrad and was Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet from 20 July 1938–20 June 1947. The following Video discusses Zhdanov’s party career. War Time Cultural relaxation The external pressure of WWII brought about an … Continue reading Andrei Zhdanov’s Cultural Purification
During Russia’s Great Patriotic War, films about the war effort dominated Russia’s film industry. With the majority of film production safely moved to Kazakhstan, the studios began to release war films to rally the Soviet people, and many of these focused on the partisan war effort. The role of women in the partisan war effort was […]
