Creative Dissent

Alternative Cultures During Socialism
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-90-485-7538-1
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 330 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This volume challenges the view that state socialism in Eastern, Southeast, and Central Europe was a monolithic structure guided by the ideal of proletarian dictatorship.

Creative Dissent argues that the region was teeming with alternative cultures: emerging practices and expressions that actively challenged the dominant social code and reshaped the reality of the people’s democracies.

The book explores how ordinary people, intellectuals, and cultural players across socialist Europe responded to state repression and comprehensive control with ingenuity and defiance. By examining how these dissenting voices circumvented or even penetrated official spaces, this collection illuminates the complex heterogeneity of life behind the Iron Curtain.

Structured around four key areas—communities, markets, media, and spaces—this work offers a necessary, nuanced understanding of cultural resistance and the limits of authoritarian control.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cseh-Varga, Katalin

Klimke, Martin

Zubak, Marko

Werenskjold, Rolf

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

0. Exploring Alternative Cultures under Socialism - Katalin Cseh-Varga, Martin Klimke, Marko Zubak and Rolf Werenskjold Section I: Communities 1. Acting It Out: The Gorgona Group’s Self-Management and Self-Institutionalization -Chelsea Pierce 2. Contesting the Meaning of Press Photographs in 1970s Hungary - Cristina Cuevas-Wolf 3. Soviet Flower Power: The Passive Protest of the Hippies in Soviet Estonia - Terje Toomistu Section II: Markets 4. The Socialist Origins of the Post-Socialist Cultural Infrastructure: Cultural Economists and the Late-Socialist Market Reforms - Kristóf Nagy 5. Dangerous Lives: Illegal Trade in Foreign Fashion in the Soviet Union, 1958–1970 - Alla Myzelev 6. Paper Elephant in the Room: Poland’s Samizdat Sonderweg, Economies of Paper Scarcity, and Informal Practices of Cultural Goods Exchange - Piotr Wci.lik Section III: Media 6. Subdued Voices: Home Movies as Eigen-Sinn in the GDR - Bjørn Sørenssen 7. Losing the Stars: The Rising Opposition of East German Actresses and Actors during the Biermann Affair - Tobias Hochscherf 8. Norwegian Media and the Soviet Samizdat Culture - Rolf Werenskjold Section IV: Spaces 9. Parties, Portfolios, and the Occasional Egg: EIGEN + ART and Creative Dissent in Late East Germany - Sara Blaylock 10. Networked Spaces of Experimental Theater in Socialist Hungary - Kornélia Deres 11. The Myth of Treptow: Sacrifice and Dissent at Berlin’s Soviet Memorial - David Ehrenpreis 12. Quo vadis Dissent? - Juliane Fürst Index Notes on Contributors

Über Autor(innen)

Katalin Cseh-Varga is a historian of visual and performance art, specializing in Central and Eastern Europe. A lecturer at the University of Vienna and Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, she has done research at Stanford and Princeton. Her 2023 book, The Hungarian Avant-Garde and Socialism: The Art of Second Public Sphere explores the Hungarian neo-avant-garde and socialism.

Martin Klimke is an Associate Professor of History at New York University Abu Dhabi, and Global Network Associate Professor of History, Faculty of Arts & Science, New York University. His research examines transnational protest movements and global networks of dissent during the Cold War. He is the author of The Other Alliance and serves as editor-in-chief of The Global Sixties interdisciplinary journal.

Marko Zubak is a historian at the Croatian Institute of History, leading the NextGenerationEU ZIVGRAD project on urban development in Croatia. His research centers on popular and club cultures under socialism. He is the author of The Yugoslav Youth Press (1968–1980) and co-editor of Global Dance Cultures in the 1970s and 1980s.

Rolf Werenskjold is a Professor of Media Studies at Volda University College, Norway. As a media historian, he has published extensively on the Cold War, the Spanish Civil War, and global protest movements. He serves on the board of the Norwegian Association of Media History and The Global Sixties journal.