Syllabus:

1. Introduction.

2. Methodology. What is a cultural history?

3. Socialist distribution system: a society of (in)equality?

4. Informal practices: shortages and a shadow network of mutual favors and connections (“blat”)

5. Socialist luxury, fashion and VIP shops (Tuzex and others)

6. Style Hunters: a bright subculture of the Khrushchev Thaw. “Bad bourgeois” taste vs. the “proper socialist” style.

7. Culture of socialist underground: protest or fashion?

8. Denunciation as a social and a personal strategy

9. Religious and church: from elimination to mocking

10. Mass gymnastics: Faster, Higher, Stronger

11. Ideology, changing women’s role and some gender stereotypes

12. Final discussion. Presentations.