In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Brezhnev era, a distinctive Soviet culture developed characterized by conformist public life and intense focus on personal life. Soviet popular culture was characterized by fascination with American popular culture as exemplied by the blue jeans craze.
Control over information
All media in the Soviet Union were controlled by the state including television and radio broadcasting, newspaper, magazine and book publishing. This was achieved by ownership of all production facilities, thus making all those employed in media state employees. This extended to the fine arts including the theater, opera and ballet. Art and Music was controlled by ownership of distribution and performance venues.
Censorship was backed in cases where performances did not meet with the favor of the Soviet leadership with newspaper campaigns against offending material and sanctions applied though party controlled professional organizations.
In the case of book publishing a manuscript had to pass censorship and the decision of a state owned publishing house to publish and distribute the book. Books which met with official favor, for example, the collected speeches of Leonid Brezhnev were printed in vast quantities while less favored literary material might be published in limited numbers and not distributed widely. Popular escapist literature such as the popular best-sellers, mysteries and romances which form the bulk of Western publishing was nearly non-existent.
Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of samizdat, illegal self-published books and magazines. Possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB. Another outlet for works which did not find favor with the authorities was publishing abroad.
It was the practice of libraries in the Soviet Union to restrict access to back issues of journals and newspapers more than 3 years old.
Related articles
References and Further Reading
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Tatyana Zaslavskaya, The Second Socialist Revolution: An Alternative Soviet Strategy, University of Indiana Press, 1990, trade paperback, 241 pages, ISBN 025336860X
- Original article is taken from the Wikinfo article, "Culture of the Soviet Union", http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Culture_of_the_Soviet_Union
Last updated: 05-21-2005 11:00:43
