Citizen Poet (Grazdanin Poet): Nostalgia for Soviet Liberalism?

• In Event: Soviet Liberalism Revisited

Abstract

This paper revisits the satirical radio show Grazhdanin poet (Citizen Poet), which became one of the leading venues for political protest during the election cycle of 2011-2012. The show rallied successfully the anti-Putin sentiment of the liberal intelligentsia and those, who in social media became associated with the rapidly emerging “creative class”. Citizen poet criticized several aspects of Russia’s political and societal developments deplored by those who identified with a western-style liberal agenda. Critical of political elites, it was not, as this paper argues, critical of the essentialist cultural hierarchies, which support the elite. The show lacked subversive vigour, which would have questioned and exposed the hierarchal fundaments of Russian institutionalized practices, hegemonic discourses, or societal norms. The nostalgia for the legacies of the 1960s Soviet liberalism undermined the subversive power of its satiric potential, preventing it from becoming a truly alternative, transformative cultural force in reforming Russia’s civil society.

Author

• Sanna Turoma, U of Helsinki (Finland)