Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Hippies in the late Soviet Union appeared to many like creatures from a different star. Yet, a closer look reveals that the history of this movement has both short- and long-term precedents, which range from early revolutionary ideals to the generation of beatniks and Beatles fans, who were only slightly older than the wave of hippie youngsters that appeared in the late 1960s all across the Soviet Union. The introduction also situates the topic of Soviet hippies both within the history of the global hippie movement as well as in the context of late Soviet life and reality. A separate discussion is devoted to the methodology of oral history and the role of the subjective authorial voice. The introduction concludes with the overall argument of the book that the worlds of hippies and late socialism were not incompatible but in a bizarre way a good fit to each other that shaped the character of both.