Soviet Myth in Post-Soviet Russia

This book examines how the Soviet past is culturally negotiated, reimagined, and recreated in new temporal regimes; how the Soviet project is “recycled” and used as a key component in the construction of a new Russian collective identity; and how it has metamorphosed from a historical dimension to the sphere of myth.

These processes, conceptualized under the term “Soviet myth,” are crucial for understanding the growing nostalgia for the USSR in Russia, recent cultural and ideological developments, and current domestic and foreign policies. The scope of this study extends from the late Soviet period to the present, but most chapters examine the pivotal decade in the formation of the Soviet myth, 2012-2022. Written by experts in the field, the book presents a broad spectrum of examples of how the Soviet legacy has been transmuted into the realm of mythology in visual arts, film, television, urban narratives, music, and video games.

Soviet Myth in Post-Soviet Russia is of value to researchers studying Slavic and Russian studies, in particular post-Soviet culture, languages, literatures, anthropology, and political science.

Maria Engström is Professor of Russian at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research focuses on Russian intellectual history, late Soviet underground culture, queer Russian visual culture, and contemporary Russian conservatism. She coedited The Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture, Oxford University Press (2024), and Digital Orthodoxy: Mediating Post-Secularity in Russia (2015). She is coeditor-in-chief of the journal Slovo. Journal of Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Her recent research projects, supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, examine the formation of Russian civilizational discourse and the aesthetics of neo-reaction.

Aleksei Semenenko is Associate Professor of Russian in the Department of Language Studies at Umeå University. He holds a PhD in Russian literature from Stockholm University. He is the author of Russian Translations of Hamlet and Literary Canon Formation (Stockholm University, 2007) and The Texture of Culture: An Introduction to Yuri Lotman’s Semiotic Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), the editor of Satire and Protest in Putin’s Russia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and Aksenov and the Environs (with Lars Kleberg; Södertörn University, 2012). He has published works on translation, literature, semiotics, and cultural recycling.