Popular Sovietology: Ideology, Politics, Culture & Everyday Life in USSR
It has become popular to compare Putin’s Russia to the USSR, but I have noticed that most experts drawing these comparisons either never lived under the communist regime or were school children in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart. I was 36 years old then and have experienced Soviet life on the fullest scale. This course presents and analyzes various aspects of the communist empire – from Marxist ideology and the Stalinist “deep state” to everyday life and culture, lifestyle and education, health care and consumerism, foreign policy and national relations. Many of the featured issues – especially when it comes to arts and cultural affairs, youth problems and lifestyle – are first-hand accounts by someone who has “been there”. More than 50 episodes of “Popular Sovietology” are now available on YouTube and are very popular among attentive Russians. Counts as a course in culture and civilization.