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Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
The Last Soviet Generation
Series: Princeton Classics
Brief Description
A fascinating exploration of 'hypernormalisation' in a political system that seemed powerful and eternal even when it was on the verge of collapse. Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that...
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Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
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Description
A fascinating exploration of 'hypernormalisation' in a political system that seemed powerful and eternal even when it was on the verge of collapse.
Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system, the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse, it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact, they were mutually constitutive. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of 'late socialism' (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.
Focusing on the major transformation of the 1950s at the level of discourse, ideology, language, and ritual, Alexei Yurchak traces the emergence of multiple unanticipated meanings, communities, relations, ideals, and pursuits that this transformation subsequently enabled. His historical, anthropological, and linguistic analysis draws on rich ethnographic material from Late Socialism and the post-Soviet period.
The model of Soviet socialism that emerges provides an alternative to binary accounts that describe that system as a dichotomy of official culture and unofficial culture, the state and the people, public self and private self, truth and lie, and ignore the crucial fact that, for many Soviet citizens, the fundamental values, ideals, and realities of socialism were genuinely important, although they routinely transgressed and reinterpreted the norms and rules of the socialist state.
[An] extraordinary book.' Brian Eno
One of the best books about the U.S.S.R. in its late stage.' Alexei Navalny, from Patriot: A Memoir
Not just history, but a pleasure to read, a true work of art.' Slavoj ลฝiลพek
Extraordinary and brilliant.' Adam Curtis, director of HyperNormalisation
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780691284484
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 March 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Illustration: 18 b/w illus. 4 tables.
Contributors:
- Preface by Alexei Yurchak
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 496
About the Author
Alexei Yurchak is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Also by Alexei Yurchak
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Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system, the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse, it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise....PaperbackSold Out
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