Astapova , Anastasiya Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 563 Astapova, Anastasiya. Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State. Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, Boulder, CO, New York and London, 2021. xii + 171 pp. Notes. References. Index. $95.00: £73.00. The close relationship between humour and rumour is the main theme of the latest work by Dr Astapova, a senior research fellow in Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, who first became known by her Negotiating Belarusianess: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between (see SEER, 94, 4, pp. 772–74). Her new thoroughly researched study, whilst again concentrating on Belarus and Lukashenka, is also notable for pointing out that many of the jokes about him could be or, indeed, are replicated in generic forms referring to other dictators, like, to mention but a few, Soviet General Secretaries, Putin, Franco, Castro and, indeed, the leaders of some of the former Soviet satellites and most of its republics, not to mention some countries in the ostensibly democratic European Union. After the Introduction, the book’s six chapters, each subdivided, are: 1. Why Does the Jelly Tremble? Surveillance Rumors and the Vernacular Panopticon; 2. Why Do all Dictators Have Moustaches? Political Jokes in the Authoritarian State; 3. Joking about the Fear (of Joking); 4. The Making of the President: Lukashenko’s Official Image and Vernacular Ridicule; 5. When the President Comes: Potemkin Villages; and 6. ‘There is a High Probability of the Mustachioed Dude’s Victory’: Election without Choice. Her conclusion begins with a well-known Soviet joke about animals collecting money to build a bridge, in which only the donkey (in some versions, goat) is successful. It was repeated to her twice in 2019, something she considers symptomatic: ‘the joke is a perfect reflection of the current Belarusian political and social life: nepotism, corruption, and a shadow economy which results in terrible unprofessionalism, especially from those employed in the state apparatus […] Both rumors and jokes about corruption are a matter of everyday life and discussion: rather than making people feel indignant, this becomes a normalized reality that everyone regularly faces’ (pp. 139–40). The main fieldwork for this study was carried out in 2013 with remarkable thoroughness in her native Viciebsk and in Miensk, although a few jokes were recorded at later dates. The author, however, was well aware that while her book was coming out, some changes were perhaps coming about in 2020 after yet another fake election was followed by exceptionally widespread and persistent mass protests, notably, led for the first time by women, but regularly broken up with extreme violence. Certainly, some Belarusians felt and perhaps still feel optimistic, but in January 2021, for example, all post from abroad was (still) being opened by the ‘customs’. Whatever happens, Astapova’s book will SEER, 99, 3, JULY 2021 564 retain its relevance, being both enlightening and entertaining, and written in a scholarly yet readable way with some familiar and many more unfamiliar illustrative examples. There are a number of misprints, most of which may be silently corrected. It is, however, unfortunate for Jonathan Waterlow, author of a book about life and humour under Stalin, that he should twice be referred to as Waterloo. Perhaps worse is the misspelling of the name of Brian Bennett as Bennet both in the text and the references, particularly as he is one of the few referenced authors who actually met Lukashenka when he was our Man in Miensk in the years 2003–07. These points do not detract seriously from a book which is without doubt a milestone in the important and fascinating field of political folklore. It should interest anyone interested in Belarus or, indeed, authoritarian societies in general. London Arnold McMillin Haynes, Rebecca. Moldova: A History. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2020. xvi + 237 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £65.00; £19.99. In her book, Rebecca Haynes responds to the challenge of writing the history of one of the most recent states to emerge on Europe’s map: the Republic of Moldova. Very little has been written on this topic in English or in French (see Charles King, Alain Ruzé, Nicholas Dima, Stephen D...