Abstract
Culture has probably never ceased to be perceived as a status symbol reflecting wealth, prestige and power. Evidence for this claim can also be found in the fact that the works of the classics of literature were indeed published in huge editions in previous decades, and trips to the theatres were organised for various working collectives.
But all of this was linked to the communist desire to provide access to elite high culture to a wide segment of the population. Thus, whereas in previous periods of state socialism cultural production reflected the needs of variously defined groups, the relative novelties of the 1990s were precisely cultural individualism and the emphasised possibility of tailoring one's own cultural baggage.