Perestroika Era Research Articles

PHENOMENON OF COSSACK ESTATE QUASI-STATEHOOD AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

phenomenon of the Cossacks is explained by means of the civilizational methodology. Cossacks have constantly tried to form a quasi-community, especially in the first half of the 17 century called the Vsevelikoe Voysko Donskoe (The Great Army). The main feature of this failed attempt was the formation of the elements of the ochlocratic state without developed forms of private property. The Great Don Army in 1918-1919 was a quasi-state structure under the command of ataman P.N. Krasnov and became the late relapse of a medieval Cossack Republic. liquidation of The Great was carried out during decossackization in the years of Civil war and as a result the Cossacks disappeared as an estate. Rehabilitation of the Cossacks in 1925 was replaced in the 1930s by the policy of latent decossackization. New kolkhozsoviet Cossacks showed themselves heroically in the Second World War unlike the Cossackscollaborationists trying to create in the German Reich their state - Cossackiya. Some attempts to recreate the Don Army region were made in the perestroika era attempts, which were suppressed by the prosecutor's office. Nowadays the national program of service for the Cossacks is being implemented.

From the Del’vig House to the Gas-Scraper: The Fight to Preserve St. Petersburg

I am not the director of a museum but the mayor of a city. --Valentina Matvienko, mayor of Petersburg A person who does not love the historical monuments of his country does not love his country. --Dmitrii Likhachev, activist and scholar of Old Russian literature On 19 October 1986, demonstrators in Leningrad converged on the home of the Russian poet Anton Del'vig (1798-1831) to protest its imminent destruction. City authorities had decided to remove it to build a new subway station. Though little known abroad, Anton Del 'vig is a much beloved cultural figure in Russia. He stood at the center of a literary circle that included the greatest poet of the era, Aleksandr Pushkin, and was Pushkin's classmate at the famous Tsarskoe Selo Lycee that spawned several writers of Russia's literary Golden Age. Del'vig had lived in the building at 1 Zagorodnyi Prospekt in the heart of the city for little more than a year, from late 1829 until his untimely death in early 1831, but it was there that he founded Russia's most important literary journal, Literaturnaia gazeta, and hosted gatherings of the city's most dazzling writers and thinkers. By some miracle the building had survived the wars and revolutions of the 20th century and become the focus of what would be the first successful mass protest against a government decision in late Soviet times. Behind the effort stood a group of young historians, archeologists, and journalists who just a month earlier had formed a preservationist organization called the Rescue Squad (Gruppa spaseniia). (1) The initiative for their first action came from a recent graduate of Leningrad University's School of Journalism, Tat'iana Likhanova. While working as a secretary at the Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, she learned of plans to raze Del'vig House and asked the archeologist and writer Sergei Vasil'ev to do something about it. Vasil'ev got together with his friend Aleksei Kovalev, a recent archeology graduate of Leningrad University, and they cofounded the Rescue Squad, mobilized its membership to gather signatures from scholars and found sympathetic journalists who placed stories in newspapers about the threat to the building. A street protest began on the anniversary of the founding in 1811 of theTsarskoe Selo Lycee to remind people of the illustrious writers associated with Del'vig House. Though riskier than a signature campaign, the street action had some official cover, as the organizers had exploited a split, typical of the perestroika era, between the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) in the city and provincial party leaders. So long as a recognized party body guided an action, it was considered legal, and the Komsomol decided, against the wishes of higher-ups, to endorse the demonstration and persuaded party leaders at the provincial level not to ban the action and risk provoking a bigger disturbance. As Tat'iana Likhanova, who had since become a prominent journalist specializing in historic preservation, explained to me in 2012, this and later demonstrations also benefited from street theater performances organized by the Petersburg Interior Theater, directed by Nikolai Beliak. For the Del'vig House action, Beliak stationed trumpeters dressed all in white on the roofs of nearby buildings, and they sounded their horns to attract the support of residents and passers-by. An actor appeared on the balcony of the Del'vig House and read a speech by Aleksandr Kunitsyn, a liberal professor of law who had taught at the Tsarskoe Selo Lycee when Pushkin and Del'vig studied there. The demonstrators sang the farewell anthem of the Lycee, written by Del'vig. The protest continued for a month until the local authorities relented and agreed to relocate the subway station. (2) If this successful action by the Rescue Squad marked a new stage in popular efforts at historic preservation, it was not without precedent. (3) This new generation of activists was building on a revival in the late 1950s of the Russian tradition of local history (kraevedenie), which under a variety of labels had started as early as the late 18th century, steadily expanded in the 19th, and reached a high point in the 1920s. …

Soviet Assessments of China after Mao

This article examines Soviet analyses of the economic reforms that China implemented during the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping. Many historians have argued that Soviet economic reform efforts during the Perestroika era might have been more successful had the Kremlin more closely followed Chinese efforts. This article shows that Soviet economists and sinologists carefully studied China’s reforms to agriculture, industry, and foreign investment law. By the mid-1980s, the article suggests, a significant section of the Soviet intelligentsia believed that China’s market-based economic reforms were working and that the Soviet Union should learn from them.

Analysic of the State Policy in the Cultural Sector of Ukraine (1991– 2001)

Cultural policy of independent Ukraine in the first decade of its existence wasformed in difficult political, economic, historical and cultural circumstances. Thearticle analyzes the system of decision making conceptual state authorities, on themain areas of cultural policy in the early years of building an independent UkrainianState (1991-2001 biennium).Culture Industry in the day revolutionary process has always been the mostfavorable on progressive change. And if ideological changes in Ukraine in the earlyyears of building an independent state (1991-2001 gg.) Were stormy, bright andvisible, the structural transformation of the organizational culture of publicadministration, its funding, creation of an appropriate framework zakono¬davchoyioccurred slowly, not always logically and scientifically justified.The study of these processes, the analysis of the response of the main branchesof the central government to tackle the crisis in the national culture and its reform,has considerable practical value, the results may be considered legislators, publicadministrators, heads of institutions and cultural institutions.Therefore, the analysis of major general rulemaking government agencies inbuilding priorities, consistency adoption and implementation of political decisions inthe cultural sphere in the first decade of independence Ukraine has becomeincreasingly necessary. These documents are the foundation historiographical scienceto understand the subject of achievements, strengths and weaknesses in the area ofcultural development during this period.All branch showed significant activity in the cultural sphere, reissuinglegislative framework addressing current problems, create new institutions or changethe status of the old and more. The main thing – the study of how this is done, howconsciously with which ideological load, for what purpose (declared or unconscious)the consequences resulted. All legislative acts of the time were full reflection of thecontradictions of perestroika era that influenced public policy in the cultural sphere inUkraine and creation of a new culture independent state in the study period.

Mikhail Gorbachev's First Visit to Britain: 30 Years on

The article explores the significance of Mikhail Gorbachev's first journey to the UK in December 1984 for the East-West relations. The visit was initiated by Margaret Thatcher who wanted to get acquainted with the potential Soviet leader as she hoped to become a trusted intermediary between Moscow and Washington. The revitalization of contacts with the USSR was a part of Britain's resurgence as a major world player after the Falklands victory. The discussions in London focused on the issue of strategic stability, though they could only serve to give the parties a better understanding of each other's position, as no political agreement could be reached due to the nature of the visit and the fact that any agreement on the subject had to be between the Soviet Union and the United States. The bilateral relations issues being discussed included mostly economic cooperation and such problems as human rights in the USSR and Soviet assistance to the British miners' strike. Gorbachev's speech on "new political thinking" and "a common European home", expressions first used during the visit to Uk, rang hollow to London, however Thatcher had the impression that she could deal with the Soviet politician in future. The British public opinion also saw Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife favourably. Later statements of Lady Thatcher and Gorbachev's critics on the meeting being defining for the foreign policy of the perestroika era should be seen as exaggerated, as the demise of the Communist system and the USSR were not foreseen by anyone in 1984, either in London or in Moscow.

Platonov Revisited: Past and Present Views on the Land of the Philosophers

This article highlights the most important moments in the disclosure of Platonovʼs oeuvre and in the evolution of its scholarly study since the writerʼs death in 1951. Special attention is paid to the major tendencies in Platonov scholarship – the predominance of politicized readings from the mid-1960s until the late perestroika era, a certain deideologization and an increased interest in philosophical and mythopoetical topics since the late 1980s, and a growing interest in the cultural and historical context(s) of Platonovʼs oeuvre today. The article also serves as an introduction to the present special issue of Russian Literature devoted to the changes in the scholarly study of Platonovʼs oeuvre.

Sąjūdžio tapatybės beieškant: sovietinėsreflektyviosios modernybės bruožai Lietuvoje

This article aims to present the case for a distinctive Sąjūdis identity (Sąjūdis is the Reform Movement of Lithuania) as the basis for consolidating a social movement capable of integrating otherwise diverse networks and social groups in Lithuania during the Perestroika era. Following M. Castells, it explores the self-definition, adversaries and societal goals of the movement as presented by Sąjūdis officials in the first months of its activity, when Sąjūdis actually became ‘the movement of all Lithuania’. The article’s basic claim is that the popularity of Sąjūdis can be explained by its self-representation as a neo-Soviet and multi-issue social movement. In the first case, Sąjūdis was developing a critique of the ‘stagnating Soviet regime’ by using arguments already approved by reformist wing of the Communist party, and thus representing a specific Soviet reflexive modernity. At the same time, as a multi-issue social movement, Sąjūdis took in diverse problems (mainly ecological, social, economical, educational and last and least political), and did not focus on questions of national or state independence as is usually claimed.

A ‘non-aligned’ intelligentsia: Timur Novikov’s neo-avantgarde and the afterlife of Leningrad non-conformism

This article describes a logic of distinction and succession within the late-twentieth-century Leningrad-St. Petersburg cultural field, whereby consecutive intelligentsia mainstreams were replaced by their avant-garde peripheries. In this dynamic picture of socio-cultural transformations, I propose a working hypothesis of a repeated stratification of the field into an ‘official’, an ‘unofficial’, and a third ‘non-aligned’ intelligentsia. This hypothesis is tested in reference to the ‘non-aligned’ groups founded by the avant-garde artist and ideologue Timur Novikov (1958–2002). Three major shifts are described: from the politicized late-Brezhnevite early 1980s to the apolitical radicalism of Novikov’s New Artists; from this anarchistic underground, through the perestroika era, to the playful ‘classicism’ of the New Academy of Fine Arts in the 1990s; and from this postmodern international orientation to an arch-reactionary, neo-imperial posturing at the turn of the 2000s. Lastly, this ‘non-aligned’ intelligentsia is suggested as a possible precedent, or, indeed, a model for understanding other historically significant avant-garde peripheries, which commonly seek to distinguish themselves from (often mutually-exclusive) centres.

Survivors' History

The twenty years of social upheaval since the Soviet collapse have added a bitter postscript to Stephen Cohen's story. Most of the survivors, including Anna Larina, are now dead, and with them the dream of a humane communist future that had kept them alive though their long detention. Poverty, ideological exhaustion, and the double-edged promise of consumer capitalism have shattered the fragile, idealistic unity of the Perestroika era. In many ways, including the subtle (albeit half-hearted) rehabilitation of Stalin, the pendulum has again swung back toward a Brezhnev-style authoritarian conservatism. Yet this situation is exactly what makes The Victims Return relevant and necessary. Cohen's account of the survivors' struggle for truth and dignity is his testament that while every story may not have what his Russian friends would call a "kheppy end," every system of oppression always produces its eventual gravediggers.

Linguistic Ideologies, Economies, and Technologies in the Language Culture of Contemporary Russia (1987–2008)

In this article I outline a theoretical and methodological framework for pursing a comprehensive study of the dominant issues and trends of Russian language culture from the Perestroika era through the present day. My chief claim is that the general shape, tone, and trajectory of a language culture will change over time and depend largely on the interdependence of three driving forces: language ideologies, economies, and technologies. To illustrate and substantiate this working hypothesis I examine both secondary theoretical sources and concrete case studies from the language culture of contemporary Russia (1987–2008).

Pop Culture Russia! Media, Arts, and Lifestyle by Birgit Beumers (review)

786 SEER, 85, 4, OCTOBER 2007 Beumers, Birgit. Pop CultureRussia! Media, Arts, and Lifestyle.Popular Culture in the Contemporary World. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA, Denver, CO and Oxford, 2005. xxxi + 399 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliographical references. Glossary. Index. ?62.50. The editors of the series Popular Culture in theContemporary World empha size that its remit is to appeal to travellers and general readers, as well as to students of a particular culture. Birgit Beumers' contribution to the series, Pop CultureRussia! Media, Arts, and Lifestyle,is an accessible, informative and entertaining read and achieves this aim. It is also a valuable resource for students of late Soviet and post-Soviet Russian culture. The book is comprehensive in its selection of different spheres of contemporary life,with chapters dealing with theMedia, Visual Culture, Performing Arts, Music and Word, Popular Entertainment and Consumer Culture. The Introduction provides a clear and incisive account of the uses of culture during the entire Soviet era and up to the present day. Beumers takes the opportunity to situate terms such as 'popular', 'mass' and 'commercial' within the Soviet and post-Soviet contexts, explanations which serve the reader well in the thematic sections. In her Visual Culture chapter, Beumers gives a coherent sense of developments in film in the post-Soviet market and the role of animated films in Russian culture; she also deals with architecture, arts and crafts and icons. Under Performing Arts come theatre, estrada and the circus, as well as an excellent section on anecdotes and jokes. Consumer Culture includes an insightfuldiscussion of advertising and a survey of aspects of everyday life such as food, leisure, fashion and contemporary folk belief. Each of the chapters balances concise and coherent narrative of the cultural changes of the past thirtyyears with reference to historical events, public figures and appropriate case studies. The historical overview section that begins each chapter is crucial in explaining the institutions, individuals and practices that governed a given cultural sphere during zastoi, and enables the reader to make greater sense of the changes that began under Gorbachev and the shiftsthat continue to the present day. The chapter on theMedia is characteristic in its impressive handling of a huge amount of information. It provides an informative and nuanced narrative of a heady series of events, while working in small but memorable details ? the role played by references to advertising for Snickers in the construction of the public profiles of both Zhirinovskii and Putin (pp. 27, 29, 319-20) being one such example. The privileging of lyrics in some genres of popular music remains an important idiosyncrasy of contemporary Russian culture, and Beumers' chapter on Music and Word provides several song lyricsby bards and rock groups in translation. The emphasis here is on the glory days of perestroika era rock. This chapter might not seem themost natural place for a discussion of slang,which plays a part inmany other manifestations of the popular too, but the examination of youth culture and language iswell informed and com prehensive. Related to this is a very good working definition of the form of straight-faced mockery of sacred cows, known in Russian as steb; the impact REVIEWS 787 of steb,too, isby no means confined to theworld of rockmusic. The intention of theMusic and Word chapter is to reveal the origins of contemporary pop music 'on the one hand in the official Soviet pop culture of the 1960s and 1970s (estrada) and on the other hand in the underground bard and rock movement' (p. 199). This is a crucial undertaking and the account of Soviet popular music, official and non-official, iswide-ranging and lucid.One minor omission is the explanation of the institution of the state-licensed vokal'no instrumental'nyi ansambl' ? despite not defining this phenomenon, Beumers occasionally uses the acronym 'VIA'. Nonetheless, the chapter provides a much-needed account of theway inwhich both official and unofficial Soviet culture played a part in shaping post-Soviet trends. It also introduces an interesting discussion of the importance of gender, sexuality and transgression in the lyricsand visual culture of rock and pop since the 1980s. One of the real successes of Pop CultureRussia!, especially as a...

Cultural Politics in International Relations by Paul Sheeran (review)

388 SEER, 8i, 2, 2003 their political sponsors. In an excellent account of media bias, Raskin scrupulouslydetails the partiality of the various television stations and how much more effective the pro-Unity and pro-Putin propaganda was. Raskin's analysis shows that legal frameworksensuring equality of access to the mass media arenot proof againstthe influenceof the powerful.This point isbacked up in the chapter by Richter. Richter shows that Russia has, thanks in large measureto El'tsin,an impressivearrayof legal actsto protect free speech, and the Law on Mass Media and Doctrine of Information Security are reprinted in the appendices. However, as he goes on to argue, there is a great gap between the spiritof the law and its operation. Privateinterestsand personal utility have ensured that there are gaps in legislation, and that there are discrepanciesbetween federaland regional statutes. There is a bit of repetition in some of the chaptersthat follow Vartanova's, particularlyrepetition about the ownershipstructuresof the media. However, the volume as a whole contains strong and well-made arguments, and Vartanova, Raskin and Richter's chapters are excellent empirical reviews of their subjects. Overall, this volume is an excellent introduction to media development in Russia. Department ofGovernment andSociety NEIL ROBINSON University ofLimerick Sheeran,Paul.Cultural PoliticsinInternational Relations. Ashgate,Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 200I. XXXi+ 192 Pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. X42.50. THIS book sets out to challenge establishedunderstandingsof the collapse of the Soviet Union. Criticizing the narrow scope of International Relations studiesin engagingwith thishistoricprocess,the authorPaul Sheeranseeksto highlight the role of what he considers the neglected sphere of grass-roots culture. Sheeran's publishersclaim that his investigation 'demonstrateshow seemingly insignificant acts propagated through music, humour and poetry can disturb official culture and initiate social change'; yet to the reader's great disappointmentthis assertionis misplaced. First,none of these areasreceives any sustained or original analysis. The Soviet anecdote is conferred scant attention, poetry is mentioned only in passing, and even Sheeran's favoured point of study, Soviet rock music, is explored in far from satisfying depth. Insteadof immersinghis readerinto the music and texts of the perestroikaera underground, instead of probing the environment and sensibility that it reflected and engendered, Sheeran glosses an entire cultural phenomenon and issues a seriesof sweeping statements as to its effect. Little or no attempt is made to quantifythe impact of rockmusic on Russiancultureand the world of young people. Instead, we are informed that '[t]he pervasive nature of unofficialSoviet rock and its appearance throughoutthe Soviet Union points to a social momentum that impairedthe acceptance and legitimacy of Soviet culture to young people' (p. I34); and that, furthermore,'Soviet rock music was pivotal in explicitly facilitatingthe shift in the prevalence of pre-political REVIEWS 389 opposition (operationalin everydaylife)to a force capable of causingpolitical reform'(p. I53). The second shortcoming in this study is thus that its observations are not supportedby sufficientargumentationand evidence. What little rawmaterial Sheeran does present -a few words from a record sleeve or a private individual'sopinion on an internetsite,forexample isusuallynot subjected to analysis: all too often it is merely deployed as a statement of fact that concludes discussion of the matter at hand. This tendency naturallyprevents Sheeranfromexploringfurtherthose avenues that he brieflyopens:no sooner does he suggestfor example that rockgroupsof the late I98os and early I990S were divided in their supportfor the 'democratic'movement, than the issue is closed. No sooner does he state that after the events of I99I 'the alternative view' disappearedfromRussian culture,than the chapterends. It would neverthelessbe a misrepresentationof Sheeran's book to suggest that it is solely concerned with expressions of a growing informal culture of the perestroika era. The author casts his net wider, and in order to contextualize what he refers to as 'alternative/counter-culture', he also considers the multiple institutional,economic, political and ideological crises confrontingthe Kremlin in (andindeed before and even after)the Gorbachev era. These important factors are not dealt with by a comprehensive introduction or by economical and instructive footnotes, and consequently the unpeeling onion of Russian culture overpowers and envelops the organizationof the entirebook. Having complained of scholars'overemphasis on global and external explanations for the demise of Soviet power, Sheeran findshimselfobliged to devote much of his...

Researching Perestroika in the Archive of the TsK KPSS

One enters the archive of the former Central Committee of the Soviet Communist party with mixed feelings of trepidation, excitement burgeoning on exaltation, and a sense of history's burden. Here may lie the answers to the greatest questions about Soviet rule and the most closely held secrets of the closing century's most mysterious and terrifying historico-political experience. This thought is constantly reinforced by the stern gazes, emanating from two mammoth portraits, of Karl Marx and Vladimir Il'ich, whose ideas combined to produce the first Communist state. Although the Central Committee Archive once held the biographical material of this party-state, those who wish to conduct research on the perestroika era and other periods of Soviet history would be wise to temper their expectations about its present offerings. The Central Committee Archive is incomplete. The bulk of the archive reportedly was moved from the archive's building on Il'inka Street, near Staraya ploshchad', to the Moscow Kremlin, where the are stored in the as yet closed Archive of the President of Russia (Presidential Archive). Therefore, what remains in the Central Committee Archive, which is now called the Center for the Preservation of Contemporary Documents (TsKhSD) and is under the competence of the Russian Committee for Archives (Roskomarkhiv), are the least sensitive and least revealing party documents. The Central Committee apparat employed three categories of secrecy for its documents, which in descending order of sensitivity were osobaia papka (special folder), sovershenno (top secret) and, finally, sekretno (secret). An official order defined this last category as documents which do not contain information consisting of party and state secrets, but which disclose the methods of work of party committees.' For the most part, I encountered only the latter two categories of documents. The relatively few number of stenographic reports of Politburo meetings which I encountered were probably included in the notorious special folders. The that had been removed from the TsKhSD are probably making their way back from the Presidential Archive, albeit slowly. Rumors that this would occur were extant in Moscow in the spring of 1993.2 Indeed, when I began my dissertation research in the Central Committee Archive in mid-January 1993, there

Lessons from the Failure of Perestroika

The old Soviet Union, long the central preoccupation of U.S. foreign policy, has been swept into history. In its place are fifteen newly independent successor countries and a quite limited Commonwealth of Independent States. Unfortunately, the political and economic situation in virtually all these countries is one of instability, and even their boundaries are coming into question. There are clearly many new problems and serious risks. But there is also great opportunity. Sometimes it helps to glance backwards in order to see better how and where to move forward. At this critical juncture, we need to understand more clearly why and how the perestroika era the final act in the history of the USSR occurred and failed.

Dans l'ex-URSS : de la difficulté d'écrire l'histoire

Quantité d'articles et d'études consacrés à l'Union Soviétique de la perestroïka ont déjà mis en lumière le rôle des œuvres de fiction : comment celles-ci se substituaient à l'Histoire, devenant «historio-graphie” au sens strict; comment l'historien saluait l'écrivain comme collègue et précurseur. En URSS, les problèmes historiques tabous, — les héritages de la pratique stalinienne : collectivisation, terreur, etc.. — étaient posés non par les historiens mais par des écrivains ou des cinéastes, de Trifonov à Grossman, de Tarkovski à Abuladze. Ce phénomène, cependant, en présupposait un autre — jouant sur l'ambiguïté originelle du terme connotant à la fois la science et son objet — sur lequel on s'est peu interrogé : pourquoi en Histoire, l'histoire soviétique ne peut-elle s'écrire? S'il était en effet encore possible en 1987/88 de considérer que seul le recul présidait à l'avènement d'une historiographie renouvelée, force est de constater en 1992 que l'obstacle essentiel ne résidait pas dans le temps nécessaire pour réappréhender le passé mais dans le temps Présent, dans l'actualité. Notre propos n'est donc pas ici d'analyser ces œuvres littéraires qui se sont substituées à l'Histoire comme discours historique, mais plutôt de déceler la nature des obstacles s'opposant à l'écriture de l'histoire dans cette dernière discipline.

Perestroika Era Politics: The New Soviet Legislature and Gorbachev's Political Reforms.Robert T. Huber , Donald R. Kelley

<i>Perestroika Era Politics: The New Soviet Legislature and Gorbachev's Political Reforms.</i>Robert T. Huber , Donald R. Kelley

Plaxa de Čingiz Ajtmatov : roman social ou mystique ?

Social or Mystical Novel: Čingis Ajtmatov’s Plaxa Čingis Ajtmatov’s novel Plaxa is a typical novel of the Perestroika era. As soon as it was published, it was acknowledged as a sign of the new trerds and opening-up occurring in the U.S.S.R. Ajtmatov particularly deals with the theme of religion but in a manner which is different from the usual antireligious ideology. A certain kind of religiosity will help the three main characters to tum back to their roots. The novel also tries to develop a more elaborate religious thought by using a character with a prophetic message of a «new christianity», and by relating the episode of the interview of Christ with Pontius Pilate, reminiscent of M. Bulgakov. The article examines these two aspects of the religious theme. The fïrst seems to be more or less organically integrated into the poetics of the text (and of the Ajtmatov’s œuvre). As for the search for a «new christianity», nourished by the Russian tradition, it appears to remain close to the marxist ideology, being more related to a social utopia than spirituality. The religious conception, as well as the novel as a whole, tries not to break totally with the common practice of the soviet «official» literature and represents rather an attempt to modify the rules of, while keeping close to the aestetics of socialist realism.