The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia

Description

The Things of Life is a social and cultural history of material objects and spaces during the late socialist era. It traces the biographies of Soviet things, examining how the material world of the late Soviet period influenced Soviet people's gender roles, habitual choices, social trajectories, and imaginary aspirations. Instead of seeing political structures and discursive frameworks as the only mechanisms for shaping Soviet citizens, Alexey Golubev explores how Soviet people used objects and spaces to substantiate their individual and collective selves. In doing so, Golubev rediscovers what helped Soviet citizens make sense of their selves and the world around them, ranging from space rockets and model aircraft to heritage buildings, and from home gyms to the hallways and basements of post-Stalinist housing. Through these various materialist fascinations, The Things of Life considers the ways in which many Soviet people subverted the efforts of the Communist regime to transform them into a rationally organized, disciplined, and easily controllable community. Golubev argues that late Soviet materiality had an immense impact on the organization of the Soviet historical and spatial imagination. His approach also makes clear the ways in which the Soviet self was an integral part of the global experience of modernity rather than simply an outcome of Communist propaganda. Through its focus on materiality and personhood, The Things of Life expands our understanding of what made Soviet people and society "Soviet." The Things of Life Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Elemental Materialism in Soviet Culture and Society 1. Techno-Utopian Visions of Soviet Intellectuals after Stalin 2. Time in 1:72 Scale: The Plastic Historicity of Soviet Models 3. History in Wood: The Search for Historical Authenticity in North Russia 4. When Spaces of Transit Fail Their Designers: Social Antagonisms of Soviet Stairwells and Streets 5. The Men of Steel: Repairing and Empowering Soviet Bodies with Iron 6. Ordinary and Paranormal: The Soviet Television Set Conclusions: Soviet Objects and Socialist Modernity Notes Selected Bibliography Index