Estrada, or stage music, was the preferred music of 1973. It rarely addressed the social issues of the time, but rather focused on the official boundaries of Soviet discourse. The musical establishment of the time “controlled the business through exclusive rights to lease stages, issue recording contracts, contract for radio and television appearances, or to […]
The Corn Campaign
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The 1960s brought with them a multitude of agricultural and economic changes beginning with the realization that in order to improve anything, the Soviets needed to grow more crops to feed the livestock. Nikita Khrushchev stated in 1954, “There will be no communism if our country has as much metal and cement as you like […]
Literary Life
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Boris Pasternak was a poet in 1956 after the Thaw of 1954 that created some trouble due to his literary work. The Thaw, written by Il’ia Ehrenburg, was the first example of poets and novelists experimenting with their literary content, although it was timid and short lived. From 1956-1957, Soviet writers began to test the limits […]
The Hunt For Food
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In September 1941, the city of Leningrad was under seize by the German which lasted until January 1944. According to one Leningrader’s diary, “We have returned to prehistoric times: life has been reduced to one thing — the hunt for food.” Upon seizing the city, the Army Group North under General Ritter von Leeb severed […]
Life Under Stalin: Childhood or Cult?
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“The slogan “Thanks to Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood” rang without irony for children who were cared for, believed in the society that cared for them, and accepted its structures of authority.” (Childhood Under Stalin) Stalin worked hard to create the impression that he was a benevolent and caring ruler both domestically and abroad. […]
The Bolshevik
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What was the relative importance of immediate events, long-term social and economic developments, the crisis in political authority, and the stresses of the war to the revolutions of February and October, 1917? Weak and changing political authority combined with growing unrest in citizens and a war to fight, is enough to topple any state […]
Father Gapon vs. ‘Our Father’
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Bloody Sunday began as a call from the people, to their leader to make the changes they saw necessary. It ended in the death of hundreds. In 1904, an Orthodox priest named Georgii Gapon mobilized thousands of workers into his ‘Assembly of Factory Workers’. Originally, the purpose of the organization was to provide a safe […]
From Zindan to Black Dolphin
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This photo shows a zindan, a traditional Central Asian prison, with prisoners and a Russian guard. A zindan is “in essence a pit in the earth with a low structure built on top.” I chose this photo because one day over the summer I came home to my three siblings watching a Netflix documentary titled Russia’s Toughest Prisons. They […]