>Chris,
> There is no contradiction here. This "chicness" does
>not mean that they are taking the ideas seriously. In the
>US, when we see 20-somethings engaging in retro styles,
>is there not usually an element of "irony" involved? That
>is certainly the sense that I had when I was in that
>restaurant. All a big in-joke, tovarisch.
>Barkley Rosser
Barkley, I was thinking of young people from, say, 15-25. The first generation of people in the fSU who didn't remember the Soviet Union is coming of age. They don't relate to the USSR either positively or negatively, exceot that the hammer-and-sickle, Red Star, etc., is associated with feelings of patriotism or nostalgia for a lost Idyll, as when the lead singer of Lyube wears a Red Army uniform on stage or Rosskoye Radio puts out its compilation CD "Moya Rodina SSSR," on which the liner notes reads, "This CD has been done with the desire that me may all feel as members of a gigantic family, the Soviet Union." Or rock band DDT's "Rozhdyonniye v SSSR," with the lines "We were lords of an empirs; today we are orphans." (This is also the first generation who, when asked about Stalin, neither say "He was a hero!" or "He was a murderous villian!" but rather "Stalin, whatever.") They're picking up the symbols that surround them -- and I do mean surround -- and assimilating them into pop culture, plus otifs from the Soviet war films and comedies they say on TV.
It's not like when US kids dress up in 70s outfits. In fact, I would go so far as to say Russian culture doesn't really possess a notion of kitsch. People love Soviet pop music.
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