<DIV>Kitsch isn't necessarily self-consciously appreciated as such. I have a friend who collects Hummel figurines. I would never make fun of them to her face. She thinks they are cute. Soviet culture wasn't always kitschy, but post war Soviet culture was almost all kitschy, except for classical music and dance, and except for the few yewars of the Thaw. As for the hammer and sickle, I never saw it displayed outside an obviously official context in the USSR or any East European country in Soviet times. Nothing like the ubiquity of the flag here. jks Chris Doss <itschris13@hotmail.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> > > > > . 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. > >Soviet culture, classical music and dance aside, was all kitsch. The high >art stuff was underground. > -- Russians wouldn't see it as kitsch (by "kitsch" I mean old-fashioned stuff you mock and utilize at the same time). You don't mean to be saying Bernes and Vysotsky are kitch? >Which did NOT happen in Soviet times. A (very typical) emigre acquaintance >of mine, came over in '90, was astounded to see, as she put it, American >workers voluntarily flying the flag. Of course she'd see that now in Russia > -- the Soviet flag, I mean. > Yes, you would. You would see it at CPRF rallies and on people's tee-shirts and jackets. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><hr SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!? Free <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/tag/*http://calendar.yahoo.com">online calendar</a> with sync to Outlook(TM).