Everyday Life in Russia Past and Present

Description

In these original essays on long-term patterns of everyday life in prerevolutionary, Soviet, and contemporary Russia, distinguished scholars survey the cultural practices, power relations, and behaviors that characterized daily existence for Russians through the post-Soviet present. Microanalyses and transnational perspectives shed new light on the formation and elaboration of gender, ethnicity, class, nationalism, and subjectivity. Changes in consumption and communication patterns, the restructuring of familial and social relations, systems of cultural meanings, and evolving practices in the home, at the workplace, and at sites of leisure are among the topics explored.

Introduction
Part I. Approaches to Everyday Life
1. The Scholarship of Everyday Life / David L. Ransel
2. Provincial Nobles, Elite History and the Imagination of Everyday Life / Mary Cavender
3. Resisting Resistance: Everyday life, Practical Competence and Neoliberal Rhetoric in Postsocialist Russia / Olga Shevchenko,
4. The Oil Company and the Crafts Fair: From Povsednevnost' to Byt in Postsocialist Russia / Douglas Rogers
Part II. Public Identities and Public Space
5. 'We don't talk about ourselves': Women Academics Recall Their Path to Success / Natalia Pushkareva
6. The Literature of Everyday Life and Popular Representations of Motherhood in Brezhnev's Time / Elizabeth Skomp
7. 'They Are Taking That Air From Us': Sale of Commonly Enjoyed Properties to Private Developers / David L. Ransel
Part III. Living Space and Personal Choice
8. Everyday Life and the Problem of Conceptualizing Public and Private during the Khrushchev Era / Deborah A. Field
9. Soviet Mass Housing and the Communist Way of Life / Steven E. Harris
10. Everyday Aesthetics in the Khrushchev-Era Standard Apartment / Susan E. Reid
11. The Soviet Communal Apartment Lives On, Adapting to Post-Soviet Conditions / Ilya Utekhin
Part IV. Myth, Memory, and the History of Everyday Life
12. Everyday Stalinism in Transition-Era Film / Peter C. Pozefsky
13. Totality Decomposed: Objectalizing Late Socialism in Post-Soviet Biochronicles / Serguei Oushakine
14. Everyday Life and the Ties that Bind in Liudmila Ulitskaia's Medea and Her Children / Benjamin Sutcliffe
Part V. Coming Home: Transnational Connections
15. Sino-Soviet Every Day: Chinese Revolutionaries in Moscow Military Schools, 1927-1930 / Elizabeth McGuire
16. Coming Home Soviet Style: The Reintegration of Afghan Veterans into Soviet Everyday Life / Karen Petrone
17. Everyday Life in Transnational Perspective: Consumption, Consumerism, and Party Favors, 1917-1939 / Choi Chatterjee
Afterword / Sheila Fitzpatrick
Bibliography

Sujets

• Former Soviet Union
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• URSS
• General officer
• Russia
• General
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 29 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253012609
• Langue: English

Extrait

EVERYDAY LIFE IN RUSSIA PAST AND PRESENT
INDIANA-MICHIGAN SERIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg, editors
EVERYDAY LIFE in RUSSIA PAST and PRESENT

Edited by
CHOI CHATTERJEE, DAVID L. RANSEL, MARY CAVENDER, and KAREN PETRONE
Afterword by
SHEILA FITZPATRICK
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
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2015 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Everyday life in Russia past and present / edited by Choi Chatterjee, David L. Ransel, Mary Cavender, and Karen Petrone.
pages cm. - (Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East European studies)
Papers from an interdisciplinary workshop entitled Everyday Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, held in May 2010 on Indiana University s Bloomington campus.
Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-253-01245-6 (hardback : alkaline paper) -
ISBN 978-0-253-01254-8 (paperback : alkaline paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01260-9 (ebook) 1. Russia-Social life and customs-Congresses. 2. Soviet Union-Social life and customs-Congresses. 3. Russia (Federation)-Social life and customs-Congresses. 4. Russia-Social conditions-Congresses. 5. Soviet Union-Social conditions-Congresses. 6. Russia (Federation)-Social conditions-Congresses. 7. Interpersonal relations-Russia-History-Congresses. 8. Interpersonal relations-Soviet Union-History-Congresses. 9. Interpersonal relations-Russia (Federation)-History-Congresses. I. Chatterjee, Choi. II. Ransel, David L. III. Cavender, Mary W., [date] IV. Petrone, Karen.
DK32.E776 2014
947-dc23
2014020094
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Genesis and Themes of Everyday Life in Russia Past and Present
P ART I. A PPROACHES TO E VERYDAY L IFE
1. The Scholarship of Everyday Life
David L. Ransel
2. Provincial Nobles, Elite History, and the Imagination of Everyday Life
Mary Cavender
3. Resisting Resistance: Everyday Life, Practical Competence, and Neoliberal Rhetoric in Postsocialist Russia
Olga Shevchenko
4. The Oil Company and the Crafts Fair: From Povsednevnost to Byt in Postsocialist Russia
Douglas Rogers
P ART II. P UBLIC I DENTITIES AND P UBLIC S PACE
5. We Don t Talk about Ourselves : Women Academics Recall Their Path to Success
Natalia Pushkareva
6. The Literature of Everyday Life and Popular Representations of Motherhood in Brezhnev s Time
Elizabeth Skomp
7. They Are Taking That Air from Us : Sale of Commonly Enjoyed Properties to Private Developers
David L. Ransel
P ART III. L IVING S PACE AND P ERSONAL C HOICE
8. Everyday Life and the Problem of Conceptualizing Public and Private during the Khrushchev Era
Deborah A. Field
9. Soviet Mass Housing and the Communist Way of Life
Steven E. Harris
10. Everyday Aesthetics in the Khrushchev-Era Standard Apartment
Susan E. Reid
11. The Post-Soviet Kommunalka: Continuity and Difference?
Ilya Utekhin
P ART IV. M YTH, M EMORY, AND THE H ISTORY OF E VERYDAY L IFE
12. Everyday Stalinism in Transition-Era Film
Peter C. Pozefsky
13. Totality Decomposed: Objectalizing Late Socialism in Post-Soviet Biochronicles
Serguei Oushakine
14. Everyday Life and the Ties That Bind in Liudmila Ulitskaia s Medea and Her Children
Benjamin Sutcliffe
P ART V. C OMING H OME: T RANSNATIONAL C ONNECTIONS
15. Sino-Soviet Every Day: Chinese Revolutionaries in Moscow Military Schools, 1927-1930
Elizabeth McGuire
16. Coming Home Soviet Style: The Reintegration of Afghan Veterans into Soviet Everyday Life
Karen Petrone
17. Everyday Life in Transnational Perspective: Consumption and Consumerism, 1917-1939
Choi Chatterjee
Afterword Sheila Fitzpatrick
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WE WANT to express our gratitude to the following four Indiana University grant programs or offices for their generous support of the workshop that launched this book: New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities, College Arts and Humanities Institute, Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, and Multidisciplinary Ventures and Seminars Fund. Thanks also go to Professor Sarah Phillips of the Indiana University Department of Anthropology, who assisted us in obtaining this funding and participated in the discussions at the workshop. We also wish to express our appreciation to Aleksandr Kamenskii of the Moscow State Higher School of Economics, Rebecca Friedman of Florida International University, and Maria Bucur and Ben Eklof, both of Indiana University, for presenting papers and critical commentary at the workshop. Other prominent scholars who served as critics and commentators include Padraic Kenney, Alexander Rabinowitch, and Jeffrey Veidlinger, all of Indiana University.
We owe a special debt of gratitude to Janet Rabinowitch and Rebecca Tolen of the Indiana University Press. They took an enthusiastic interest in this project from its start. They attended sessions of the workshop, encouraged us to build a book out of its contributions, and gave useful tips and guidance along the way toward that goal. We also wish to acknowledge editor Nancy Lightfoot for her help with the last stages of the project; Jeremiah Nelson, a graduate assistant at the University of Kentucky who formatted the files submitted by the contributors; Mary M. Hill, who copyedited the entire volume; and Audra Yoder, who created the index.
Finally, our sincere appreciation goes to Mark Trotter, assistant director and outreach coordinator of the Indiana University Russian and East European Institute, and to his energetic staff for organizational and logistical support in connection with the workshop.

EVERYDAY LIFE IN RUSSIA PAST AND PRESENT
Introduction
The Genesis and Themes of Everyday Life in Russia Past and Present
T his volume originated from a series of interlinked and parallel conversations among the editors. These discussions explored new possibilities for transnational collaboration and developments in critical theory on the nature of the quotidian. Our initial deliberations led to the convocation of an interdisciplinary workshop entitled Everyday Life in Russia and the Soviet Union in May 2010 that was generously funded by Indiana University and held on its Bloomington campus. Our aim from the outset was ambitious: we wanted to expand our intellectual horizons and cast our research net as broadly as possible. Rather than restrict ourselves to our own subfields of academic expertise, we organized the meeting as a working conference or seminar that would allow us to familiarize ourselves with new scholarship in the fields of history, anthropology, literature, art, and film studies. Over the course of three days, specialists in imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet studies from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States considered developments in their particular fields of research and searched for linkages, continuities, and discontinuities across periods and disciplines. The chapters in this volume reflect the intellectual breadth of our workshop deliberations and our common desire to transcend boundaries imposed by disciplinary orientation and standard periodization.
The elusive and ill-defined nature of everyday life invites a reexamination of the analytical categories generated in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Because the presumed otherness of Soviet life has lost its persuasiveness since 1991, we can now see the possibilities for escaping the interpretations of Homo sovieticus as a member of a species whose unique ecology demanded special modes of inquiry. Methodologies borrowed from postcolonial and transnational history allow us to pursue the reintegration of both the Russian past and present into the narrative of global history. Moreover, the fall of the Soviet Union opened opportunities for Russian and foreign scholars to conduct sustained fieldwork in anthropology and sociology free of overt political constraints and to collaborate in designing pioneering research projects that are based in part on multiple interpretations of a shared corpus of critical theory. 1 At about the same time, historians of Russia in the United States, Russia, and Europe became interested in questions of everyday life and of the domestic sphere. After decades of research on topics located in the public theaters of politics, class formation, and statecraft, researchers turned to an examination of the contact zones of daily life where grand historical events and ideological contests are personally experienced. 2 Our aim is to highlight and integrate current work in a variety of fields in which the analytical focus is on