Everyday Life in Early Soviet Russia: Taking the Revolution Inside

What did it mean to live as a subject of early Soviet modernity? In the 1920s and 1930s, in an environment where every element of daily life was supposed to be transformed by Soviet ideology, routine activities became ideologically significant, subject to debate and change. Drawing on original archival materials and theoretically informed, the essays in this volume examine ways in which Soviet citizens sought to align their private lives with the public nature of Soviet experience by taking the Revolution inside. Topics discussed include the new sexuality, family loyalty during the Terror, the advertisement of Soviet commodities, the employment of domestic servants, children's toys and Pioneer camps, and narratives of self, ranging from diaries to secret police statements to monologues on the Soviet screen and stage. Bringing into dialogue essays by scholars in history, literature, sociology, art history, and film studies, this interdisciplinary volume contributes to the growing understanding of the Soviet Union as part of the history of modernity, rather than its totalitarian other.

Author: Christina Kiaer
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 12/14/2005
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780253217929

About the Author

Christina Kiaer is Associate Professor of Art History at Columbia University and author of Imagine No Possessions: The Socialist Objects of Russian Constructivism.

Eric Naiman is Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley and author of Sex in Public: The Incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology.