The work draws on interviews with men and women born in 1949/50 who attended two schools: one in the closed city of Saratov and the other in Moscow. Both were prestigious schools and most graduates went on to college and interesting careers: they make lucid and articulate companions to travel through the Soviet Union of the post-Stalin era. Raleigh’s monograph takes us through the different chapters of their lives – childhood, school, college, adult family life, work – and in doing so traces their attitudes towards Soviet power and the wider world.
The book raises two important questions. The first is the question of what we should conclude about the mentalities and beliefs of a generation who were adolescents in the 1960s and mature adults …show more content…
In his conclusion to the book, Raleigh suggests that Yurchak’s arguments fail to deal adequately with the question of where a Gorbachev comes from. He argues that the “joke-telling” and cynicism shook the foundations of the Soviet system. It’s certainly true that not all the interivewees’ stories fitted so neatly into the kind of patterns identified. Part of the story of the “baby-boomers,” as Raleigh tells it, is about a Cold War generation whose lives had much in common with those of their counterparts in the USA (or indeed in Western Europe): growing numbers attending college, increased leisure time, (relatively) more access to consumer items, and a growing interest in fashion and popular culture. But what was distinctively “Soviet” about it? Some features are obvious. Consumerism, of course, was very different in the context of the USSR: as an outsider it is hard not to be amazed by the absurdity of people from the provinces travelling several hours by train to bring back sausage from the capital, sausage which might even have been made locally. But of course, Soviet citizens were also struck by this
The book raises two important questions. The first is the question of what we should conclude about the mentalities and beliefs of a generation who were adolescents in the 1960s and mature adults …show more content…
In his conclusion to the book, Raleigh suggests that Yurchak’s arguments fail to deal adequately with the question of where a Gorbachev comes from. He argues that the “joke-telling” and cynicism shook the foundations of the Soviet system. It’s certainly true that not all the interivewees’ stories fitted so neatly into the kind of patterns identified. Part of the story of the “baby-boomers,” as Raleigh tells it, is about a Cold War generation whose lives had much in common with those of their counterparts in the USA (or indeed in Western Europe): growing numbers attending college, increased leisure time, (relatively) more access to consumer items, and a growing interest in fashion and popular culture. But what was distinctively “Soviet” about it? Some features are obvious. Consumerism, of course, was very different in the context of the USSR: as an outsider it is hard not to be amazed by the absurdity of people from the provinces travelling several hours by train to bring back sausage from the capital, sausage which might even have been made locally. But of course, Soviet citizens were also struck by this