Primary Source on Soviet interest in western goods/culture 50s-70s

[Charlotte Rosenthal]

Dear Professor Applebaum:

You might show the film "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears" (set in the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years) which has a number of references (mostly negative)to Western popular culture and language, including the new phenomenon of television in the 1950s.  These are set off against positive "native" culture.  It's also an excellent example of "Socialist Realism" in cinema which ironically won an Academy Award.  My students and I discuss how Hollywood was hoodwinked (or not).
Charlotte Rosenthal

Charlotte Rosenthal, Ph. D.
Professor of Russian
Dept. of Modern & Classical Langs. and Lits. University of Southern Maine
Portland, ME 04104-9300 U.S.A.

crosenth at usm.maine.edu
>>> Rachel Applebaum  10/16/09 10:26 AM >>>
Dear List Members,

I'm going to be teaching an introductory undergraduate course on  
"Russian civilization" in the winter, which will be mostly based on  
primary source material (in English, including fiction). I'm looking  
for a text to assign about Soviet interest in Western (American/ 
European) popular culture/and or goods in the Khrushchev or Brezhnev  
period. I was thinking for instance of Aksenov's Starry Ticket, but  
it's too long and the translation strikes me as stilted. Ideally I'd  
like to find something under 100-150 pages. It could be a novella,  
diary, memoir, archival document, film, anything really.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,

Rachel Applebaum
PhD Candidate, Russian and East European History
University of Chicago

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