> mish-mash of manners, hygiene and high culture. Although the
> 'appreciation' of this culture seems to be limited to a
> trivia-like knowledge of 'great works', looking at diaries of
I think there was much more in it that you give it a credit for. The Soviet cultural policy was decidedly against western commercial culture, but in favor of classical culture, both domestic and foreign. I recall, for example, a HS textbook on the history of music that went into great depth discussing classical composers and music traditions all over the world, and had one (sic!) brief section on rock'n'roll which described it as a rather amateurish form of music whose main value was "self satisfaction of those who play it." Most cities had theaters, operas or concert halls, the tickets were dirt cheap because of state subsidies, and factories often distributed them for free to their employees. I agree that there was an unmistakable 19th century "nation-building" effort in it, but there was also a great deal of international classics in it. So saying that was about "hygiene" and "great works" is misleading - there was a genuine effort to introduce "high culture" to the masses.
I may add that these efforts were for the most part throwing pearls before swine, because all that the masses cared about was a bottle of vodka, mega-kitschy "soap operas" imported from Latin America and the US, and the "amateurish" rock'n'roll - but that is a different story.
Wojtek