
Between Truth and Time
A History of Soviet Central Television
Christine Elaine Evans(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 4. October 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
360 pages
978-0-300-20848-1 (ISBN)
Description
The first full-length, archive-based history of Soviet Central Television's production and programming in the decades before perestroika
In the first full-length study of Soviet Central Television to draw extensively on archival sources, interviews, and television recordings, Evans challenges the idea that Soviet mass culture in the Brezhnev era was dull and formulaic. Tracing the emergence of play, conflict, and competition on Soviet news programs, serial films, and variety and game shows, Evans shows that Soviet Central Television's most popular shows were experimental and creative, laying the groundwork for Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms and the post-Soviet media system.
In the first full-length study of Soviet Central Television to draw extensively on archival sources, interviews, and television recordings, Evans challenges the idea that Soviet mass culture in the Brezhnev era was dull and formulaic. Tracing the emergence of play, conflict, and competition on Soviet news programs, serial films, and variety and game shows, Evans shows that Soviet Central Television's most popular shows were experimental and creative, laying the groundwork for Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms and the post-Soviet media system.
Reviews / Votes
"This engagingly written book will be of great interest to those interested in late socialism (inside and outside the USSR), and media more generally. It intersects with conversations about late socialism, the role of intellectuals in the USSR, youth, media technology, celebrity, class, cultural politics, and the question of political legitimacy in authoritarian regimes." -Diane Koenker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- Diane Koenker "An impressive, original new history of the most prominent 'public sphere' of the late Soviet period. The scholarship is immaculate. I consider this the most insightful study yet produced of Soviet culture in the purportedly grey period of 1968-85." -Stephen Lovell, King's College London-- Stephen Lovell "Evans handles matters of reception and production with great intelligence, theoretical sophistication and admirable clarity. Her rigorous research in Soviet-era archives deeply enriches our understanding of what seemed to outsiders to be the most boring and conservative of Soviet media. She has found a series of sweet spots between producers and consumers for which the best of cultural studies has always striven. This path-breaking book is a must-read for students at all levels in a wide range of disciplines."--Robert Edelman, University of California, San Diego -- Robert Edelman "This book will resonate with anyone interested in both the history of mass communications and late state socialism." -Lewis Siegelbaum, Jack and Margaret Sweet Professor of History at Michigan State University -- Lewis Siegelbaum "In exhuming 1970's Soviet television, Christine Evans makes a fascinating discovery. Both the experimentalism of Gorbachev's era and the neo-rigidity of Putin's got their start under, yes, Leonid Brezhnev. Tocqueville told us this is how revolutions-and counter-revolutions-work, but Evans brings his insight to life. A subtle, illuminating, entertaining book."-Stephen Sestanovich, author of Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama -- Stephen Sestanovich
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
20 b-w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-20848-1 (9780300208481)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2016
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€36.00
Available for download
Person
Christine E. Evans is assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She lives in Milwaukee, WI.