Monthly Archives: November 2017

Under the influence of rock’n’roll

The excerpts from Yurchak’s book discuss how Western music, particularly jazz and rock and roll, had become increasingly popular amongst Soviet youth in the 1950s and onward. This went hand in hand with the increasing fascination over Western culture, in … Continue reading

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“Good” and “Bad” Soviet Literature

In our readings for today, we were given two examples of writing from the Soviet period: An excerpt from Time Forward, a production novel by Valentin Kataev; and “The Adventures of a Monkey”, a short story by Mikhail Zoshchenko. Time Forward … Continue reading

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A Brief History of Music from Peter I to Nicholas II

Hello! Since we just watched The Rite of Spring, I figured it might be appropriate to have some works of music from the other Cultural Revolutions we’ve studied, as well as an additional piece composed roughly contemporaneously to compare with The … Continue reading

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Third times the charm?

Previously in class we discussed a rise in the intelligentsia of the Slavophiles and Westernizers. In the Saunders reading for today we are presented with the intelligentsia again but a much more radical one. The previous radical intelligentsia, the slavophiles … Continue reading

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