Melancholic identities - Andrei Iliescu

Melancholic identities

Nostalgic feelings idealizing the old Soviet times are typical for Russian society today. Such notions must be understood as a socio-cultural phenomenon formed as a result of a “social catastrophe”, namely the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

The first symptoms of idealized past nostalgia were noticed in 1993 at the point when the “Great Reform” launched by president Yeltsin unleashed a profound social and economic crisis. If in the 90s the Soviet nostalgia was manifested as an individual experience adding emotion to images of the past, in the recent years the “collective memory” began to be cultivated in a new, compact and coherent shape by deliberate manipulation through mass-media as state politics. Social institutions also contribute to this mass nostalgia. Designing and promoting nostalgic sentiments, these institutions create the consumer behaviors driven by market rules. Today, the “nostalgic mindset” and modernize of the Russian “golden age” myth (referring of 1950-1970 period – the most great, prosperous and rich in achievements) establishing new versions of Soviet history for the younger generations. The signs and the symbols of the Soviet past became part of everyday life, reviving the past and giving a new sense of identity.

Modulated by a kind of vanished “way we were”, this retro revival is visible in countless aspects of daily life. It can be seen appearing among the bric-a-brac of street markets or with reproductions of old propaganda posters brought up to date by advertising. An entire industry of reminiscing about the Soviet era has arisen. People began to collect and preserve old items, and marketing experts begun to turn the familiar Soviet names of clothing and products factories into fashionable brands. Other signs are visible in the fashion for old Soviet songs and films or in interior decorations of cafes and restaurants.

This topic of “Soviet nostalgia” is far more complex than can be illustrated here and has been debated in countless studies made in the last years. That’s why my approach can be considered superficial, limiting to a few aspects of everyday life as part of a small visual journal written in my two trips in Russian Federation in 2017 and 2019.