Simon Huxtable

The Challenge of Flow: State Socialist Television between Revolutionary Time and Everyday Time

This article contributes to the growing literature on diverse television cultures globally and historically by examining selected aspects of television cultures in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Being part of a political, economic and cultural system that self-consciously set out to develop an alternative form of modern society, state socialist television offers a particularly apposite case study of alternative forms of modern television. State socialist television was inevitably drawn into the Cold War contest between two rival visions of modernity and modern life: one premised on liberal democracy and the market economy, the other on communist rule and the planned economy. As a result, its formats, content and uses were different from those familiar from western television histories. The analysis, based on 70 life-story interviews, schedule analysis and archival sources, focuses on the temporal structures of television and on the challenges posed by television’s ability to offer an instantaneous connection to the unfolding present. We argue that the nature of television temporality had ambiguous consequences for the communist project, allowing citizens of state socialist countries to disconnect from communist ideals, while synchronising their daily life with the ongoing march towards the radiant communist future.

Remembering a problematic past: TV mystics, perestroika and the 1990s in post-Soviet media and memory

This article examines memories of the TV psychic Anatoly Kashpirovsky, whose TV ‘séances’ were broadcast on Soviet state television in the late-1980s. Based on the results of interviews from Russians and Ukrainians conducted in 2013–2014, a television serial based on the rise of TV mystics in the late-1980s and a web forum devoted to discussion of the serial, this article uses memories of Kashpirovsky in both vernacular and public contexts as a means of understanding the place of perestroika and the 1990s in the post-Soviet historical consciousness. In particular, the article focuses on the continued contestation over the meaning of perestroika and the 1990s in Russian and Ukrainian collective memory and the different interpretative strategies used to explain the past. The article seeks to examine the different forms of memory work taking place in different memory spaces, from the popular, vernacular memories voiced in interviews, to public memories expressed within popular culture.

The Problem of Personality on the Soviet Screen, 1950s-1960s

Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, Soviet television acquired a growing popularity amongst the public. In a period when its technical and artistic quality remained low, the welcoming presence of TV personalities like Valentina Leont’eva and Iurii Fokin was one key reason for TV’s popularity. In this article, which combines an analysis of selected TV shows with archival documents and press articles, professionals’ discussions over the desirable qualities that personalities needed to possess are placed within a wider historical context where cultivating ones personality was seen as essential for the reconstruction of society after the excesses of Stalinism.

What Was Socialist Television and What Came Next?EvansChristine EBetween Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television, Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, 2016; 344 pp.: £65.00 hbk, £25.00 pbkImreAnikóTV Socialism, Duke University Press: Raleigh, NC, 2016; 328 pp.: £20.99RiveroYeidy MBroadcasting Modernity: Cuban Commercial Television, 1950–1960, Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, 2015; 264 pp.: £16.99

Research into television, hitherto the poor relation of socialist media history, has recently sprung into life. While Cold War-era scholarship considered television merely as a source of propaganda, recent work has challenged readers to consider the social and political significance of this post-war cultural form. The start of the decade saw the publication of Paulina Bren’s The Greengrocer and His TV, a path-breaking work which considered how Czechoslovak mini-series advanced the agenda of ‘normalization’ after the Prague Spring, followed by Kristin Roth-Ey’s stimulating Moscow Prime Time, which placed television at the centre of a rapidly changing Soviet media edifice.1 Since then, scholars working in a range of disciplines, using a range of methodologies, have broadened our knowledge of this hitherto neglected world of socialist television.2 This research embodies a range of approaches to the medium, showing that (to use Yeidy Rivero’s memorable phrase) television is simultaneously ‘a technology, a channel, and a place’ (p. 44). The three books discussed in this review essay exemplify these diverse tendencies. They span media studies, cultural studies and media history, presenting both nation-centred studies (Rivero, Evans) and transnational analysis (Imre). They draw on diverse sources: ranging from legal frameworks in Rivero’s monograph to internal editorial debates in Evans’ book. All works draw on contemporary discussions of the medium from professional publications and newspapers, alongside close readings of programmes, though the ephemeral nature of early programming has reduced Rivero’s ability to examine the shows themselves. In this review essay, I will highlight some of the key questions posed 753739 EJC0010.1177/0267323117753739European Journal of CommunicationReview Essay review-article2018

Communism on Tomorrow Street. Mass Housing and Everyday Life after Stalin

overall grim picture. German ends her discussion by restating that ‘conceptualisation of the South Caucasus as anything more than a geographic entity is undermined by the fact that all three states are looking outwards, away from the region for security’ rather than towards each other (p. 168). All three states do little to tackle problems that hinder cooperation. In short, the vision of a ‘united Caucasus’ remains an aspiration rather than a reality (p. 169). German’s book is a welcome addition to the field and is highly recommended to scholars and students who are interested in the history and politics of the South Caucasus.

Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West

opposed to the current emphasis on extraordinary figures. These interactions took place on many levels, for example through tourism, sport, or cultural exchanges, the latter a topic explored in my own work on Soviet youth and popular culture in the Cold War. Such minor criticisms should not detract from reader attention to this thought-provoking and highquality book. The editors and contributors deserve much praise for helping us acquire a greater appreciation of how affective personal responses powerfully impacted how notable Americans engaged with and interpreted Russia; this book has certainly made me more self-reflective about how I understand and comment on Russia. This well-written book would have been highly suitable for class assignments but for its cost, and we can only hope the publisher puts out a suitably-priced paperback version soon. This book constitutes required reading for anyone interested in Soviet–American interactions during the twentieth century, and in the complex interactions between emotional response and intellectual interpretation.