Overview

Taken together, these essays redefine the preconceived notion of Soviet happiness as the product of official ideology imposed from above and expressed predominantly through collective experience, and provide evidence that the formation of the concept of individual happiness was not contained by the limitations of important state projects, controlled by state policies and aimed toward the creation of a new society.

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9781843313106

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Reviews

<p>'This volume is an invaluable collection of excellent scholarship [...] the chapters yield stunning insights into discursive claims of Soviet public and private happiness in circumstances least amenable to its flourishing: amidst poverty and homelessness, domestic shortages, postwar devastation, and routinized, mandatory celebration. The research usefully problematizes the inextricability of state celebration from private joy, labor from happiness, staged gaiety from unexpected contentment. The chapters are richly supported by thirty-six illustrations.' --Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh, in 'Slavic Review'

<p>'This illuminating book explores the concept of happiness in Soviet culture, as manifested in a number of key topics, ranging from literature, art, architecture, and film to advertising, cookery books, and textiles... The analysis throughout is underpinned and enriched by careful attention to detail and, wherever appropriate, the use of personal testimony. The black-and-white illustrations may evoke in many a nostalgia for a paradoxical era that blighted many lives, but that also testified to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of often overwhelming adversity.' --Roger Cockrell, University of Exeter, in 'Modern Language Review'

'This illuminating book explores the concept of happiness in Soviet culture, as manifested in a number of key topics, ranging from literature, art, architecture, and film to advertising, cookery books, and textiles... The analysis throughout is underpinned and enriched by careful attention to detail and, wherever appropriate, the use of personal testimony. The black-and-white illustrations may evoke in many a nostalgia for a paradoxical era that blighted many lives, but that also testified to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of often overwhelming adversity.' -Roger Cockrell, University of Exeter, in 'Modern Language Review' 'This volume is an invaluable collection of excellent scholarship [...] the chapters yield stunning insights into discursive claims of Soviet public and private happiness in circumstances least amenable to its flourishing: amidst poverty and homelessness, domestic shortages, postwar devastation, and routinized, mandatory celebration. The research usefully problematizes the inextricability of state celebration from private joy, labor from happiness, staged gaiety from unexpected contentment. The chapters are richly supported by thirty-six illustrations.' -Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh, in 'Slavic Review' 'Makes an original contribution to our discipline, and several chapters will be of lasting interest to scholars of twentieth-century cultural history.' -Polly Jones, University College London, in 'Slavonica'

Author Information

Marina Balina is Isaac Funk Professor of Russian Studies at Illinois Wesleyan University. Evgeny Dobrenko is Professor of Russian Studies at Sheffield University.

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