Description
This Czech-language nonfiction book examines the last Soviet generation through the paradox that the collapse of socialism was both completely unexpected and entirely inevitable. Although most people in the late socialist period viewed the Soviet system as eternal and unchanging, they were simultaneously prepared for its fall. This paradox provides the starting point for Alexei Yurchak’s study of the last Soviet generation, to which he himself belongs. Yurchak, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, offers an alternative to the traditional binary understanding of Soviet socialism and to analyses based on oppositions such as living in truth versus living a lie, the authorities versus ordinary people, or official versus unofficial culture. He points out that this approach overlooks an important fact: many Soviet citizens felt that socialist values were close and meaningful to them, even though in everyday life they often reinterpreted and broke the rules of the state that claimed to uphold those values.
Information
Author: Jurčak Alexej
Language: Czech
Publication date: November 14, 2018
Manufacturer: Nakladatelství Karolinum
Genres: Non-fiction literature, Books, History and facts
Type: Books - paperback
Pages: 388
ISBN/EAN: 9788024636627