Research Group "Soviet and Post-Soviet Intellectual and Artistic Culture"

Head: Ilya Kukulin

Participants: Ekaterina Danilkina, Anna Ganzha, Irina Glushchenko, Elena Karpenko, Irina Lagutina, Jan Levchenko, Maria Mayofis, Olga Roginskaya, Zemfira Salamova.  

Today, the history of Soviet society seems to be studied quite well. However, even now, one can recall a number of everyday cultural practices that are well-known to the majority of former Soviet citizens who lived in the 1950s—1980s, but not included within the scope of academic research, and therefore, not understood historically and considered in the context of “big”, international history. Consider for instance the construction and maintenance of more or less intimate personal relationships; reading “between the lines” in books and newspapers; the emergence and development of academic groups that strived to avoid censorship restrictions, and managed sometimes to succeed, as in the case of the  Moscow—Tartu Semiotic School; the pursuit of “real” (unofficial) intellectual interests within the framework of pompous Soviet jubilees of political and/or cultural celebrities, whether Russian or foreign, or of other solemn events functioning only as formal “covers”; public discussions (say, of literary works or theater performances) where the issues of genuine interest for the discussants could be mentioned only through hints and allusions. All of these practices are very interesting in themselves, but are also elements in a larger picture presenting a complex weave of modernizing and counter-modernizing tendencies in different segments of Soviet society. The work of our research group focuses on the principles shaping such (or similar) “ensembles.” A further subject of our research is the post-Soviet transformation of these practices and their traces – or analogues – in contemporary Russian culture, as well as the memory of these practices and their representation in literature, films, TV series, and the like.