In Estrada? , the second volume of a three-part series on Russian popular song, David MacFadyen extends his overview of Russian culture and society into the post-Soviet period. Having dispelled several myths surrounding Soviet popular entertainment - known as "estrada" or the "small stage" - in Red Stars, MacFadyen shifts his attention to a newer musical tradition that has emerged from the simultaneous disappearance of Soviet ideology and the loud influx of western music. The author shows how performance, popularity, and politics have all changed rapidly in Russia following the fall of...

Investigates what made El'dar Riazanov's films so popular and what relationship that popularity had to Soviet policy. This book looks at how Riazanov's films relate to society, audience demand, and Soviet politics. In more than twenty love stories that have little to do with statecraft, Riazanov captures the inclusiveness of socialist culture.

Russia's funniest and most popular films are the work of El'dar Riazanov, a director whose light, lyrical tales of love lost and found have garnered audiences of over one hundred million. Although Western scholars have largely ignored Riazanov's oeuvre in favour of more serious filmmakers, no director in Russia has been so loved by both the public (openly) and politicians (covertly). His early comedies mapped the relations between society and socialism, allowing him to create a radically apolitical art of kindness and kindred spirits. what - if any - relationship that popularity had to Soviet...