The present work investigates modalities of identity-creation in the Soviet Union between 1968 and 1988, focusing on three groups of nonconformist thinkers in Novosibirsk, and its research district Akademgorodok: punk musicians, the architectural fantasists known as Paper Architects, and two of the most prominent figures in post-Thaw Soviet sociology, Vladimir Shlapentokh and Tatiana Zaslavskaia. Through analysing a range of primary material, from personal correspondence and writings and work contemporaneous with the period to later reminiscences, the thesis highlights peculiarities of time and space in late- Soviet Novosibirsk which contributed to an unusually fertile environment for intellectual and artistic experimentation. In dialogue with Alexei Yurchak's work on late-Soviet society and the concept of vnyenakhodimost' (existing 'outside', in this context outside of politics and the Soviet state), and with reference to Mikhail Bakhtin, Erving Goffman, and Vaclav Havel, this work identifies three important factors in nonconformist identity-construction in late-Soviet Novosibirsk, and to some extent the USSR more generally. These are: the use of state institutions to create spaces for nonconformist activity; the key role played in that activity by social interaction, interest groups and 'play'; and a common recognition of the disparity between lived reality in the USSR and the state's depiction of itself, motivating a search for 'truth'.
- Architecture
- Sociology
- Soviet
- Institution
- Novosibirsk
- Nonconformism
- Identity
- Punk
Situating Svoi: Nonconformism and Intrainstitutional Autonomy in Late-Soviet Novosibirsk
Drew, T. (Author). 31 Dec 2023
Student thesis: Phd