Russian and Post-Soviet Studies: Culture

Using its custom-made version of Marxism as a road map for the transformation of economy and society, the Bolshevik state acknowledged a role of culture. The early 1920s saw the unbridled creativity of futuristic projects in many domains of high culture. The next decade saw a decisive turn of the Soviet culture toward conservative ideas, with mass violence becoming the routine mechanism of political control. Paradoxically, oppression made culture politically relevant and power culturally productive. The Gulag became the central institution of Soviet culture, and mourning for its victims defined its later developments till the collapse of 1991.