Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 1964–1985

by Klumbyte, Neringa; Sharafutdinova, Gulnaz; Boyer, Dominic; Brown, Kate; Edelman, Robert; Honey, Larisa; Livshin, Olga; Paretskaya, Anna; Sutcliffe, Benjamin M.; Zhuk, Sergei I.

• ISBN13: 9780739175835
• ISBN10: 0739175831
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-18
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

What did it mean to be a Soviet citizen in the 1970s and 1980s? How can we explain the liberalization that preceded the collapse of the USSR? This period in Soviet history is often depicted as stagnant with stultified institutions and the oppression of socialist citizens. However, the socialist state was not simply an oppressive institution that dictated how to live and what to think-it also responded to and was shaped by individuals' needs.In Soviet Society in the Era of Late Socialism, 196485, Neringa Klumbyte and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova bring together scholarship examining the social and cultural life of the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1964 to 1985. This interdisciplinary and comparative study explores topics such as the Soviet middle class, individualism, sexuality, health, late-socialist ethics, and civic participation. Examining this often overlooked era provides the historical context for all post-socialist political, economic, and social developments.

Author Biography

Neringa Klumbyte is assistant professor of anthropology at Miami University (Ohio). Gulnaz Sharafutdinova is associate professor of political science and international studies at Miami University (Ohio).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: What Was Late Socialism?	p. 1
Plutonium Enriched: Making Bombs and Middle-Classes	p. 15
A Middle Class without Capitalism? Socialist Ideology and Post-Collectivist Discourse in the Late-Soviet Era	p. 43
"Cultural Wars" in the Closed City of Soviet Ukraine, 1959-1982	p. 67
Soviet Ethical Citizenship: Morality, the State, and Laughter in Late Soviet Lithuania	p. 91
Pluralizing Practices in Late-Socialist Moscow: Russian Alternative Practitioners Reclaim and Redefine Individualism	p. 117
Football in the Era of "Changing Stagnation": The Case of Spartak Moscow	p. 143
Beyond the Genres of Stagnation: Reading the Allure of I. Grekova's The Hotel Manager	p. 163
Raped with Politburon: Bawdy Humor and Disempowerment in Yuz Aleshkovsky's Prose	p. 183
Afterword: Postcard from Berlin: Rethinking the Juncture of Late Socialism and Late Liberalism in Europe	p. 203
Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 237
About the Authors	p. 249
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