The Socialist Sixties

The 1960s have re-emerged in scholarly and popular culture as a protean moment of cultural revolution and social transformation. In this volume socialist societies in the Second World (the Soviet Union, East European countries, and Cuba) are the springboard for exploring global interconnections and cultural cross-pollination between communist and capitalist countries and within the communist world. Themes explored include flows of people and media; the emergence of a flourishing youth culture; sharing of songs, films, and personal experiences through tourism and international festivals; and the rise of a socialist consumer culture and an aesthetics of modernity. Challenging traditional categories of analysis and periodization, this book brings the sixties problematic to Soviet studies while introducing the socialist experience into scholarly conversations traditionally dominated by First World perspectives.

This volume is divided in three parts: the first one, talks about how people became consumers in the Soviet Sixties; the second one, regards the internationalisation of the 1968 movements until the Prague Spring; the last one, treats of the popular culture and media in USSR, in the former Yugoslavia and also in Cuba.