Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland

Flowers through Concrete explores the lives and thoughts of Soviet hippies who created a version of Western counterculture in the face of disapproval and repression. Based on over a hundred interviews, declassified documents, and private archives, the book reveals the almost forgotten story of how hippie communities sprang up across the Soviet Union in the late-60s, often under the tutelage of the rebellious offspring of privileged households. It charts how these communities linked up to create an impressive network with elaborate customs and rituals, ensuring their survival for more than two decades. The book suggests that the land of Soviet hippies and the world of late socialism were not entirely incompatible, but meshed surprisingly well. However, it was not the KGB but the arrival of capitalism in the 1990s that ended the Soviet hippie sistema.

Format: Hardback
Length: 496 pages
Publication date: 04 March 2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Flowers through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland delves into the lives and contemplations of Soviet hippies, who, in the face of disapproval and suppression, crafted a unique version of Western counterculture. They adeptly adapted to, manipulated, and shaped their late socialist environment, creating an underground hippieland that extended beyond. This book situates the world of hippies firmly within the late Soviet reality, offering an unconventional history of the last Soviet decades and serving as a case study of transnational youth culture and East-West globalization.

Based on extensive research encompassing over a hundred interviews, declassified documents, and private archives concealed for many decades, Flowers through Concrete unveils the nearly forgotten tale of how hippie communities emerged across the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. Often guided by the rebellious offspring of privileged households at the core of the Soviet establishment, these communities formed intricate networks with elaborate customs and rituals, ensuring their survival for over two decades.

Flowers through Concrete not only recounts a compelling story of survival against the odds—hippies facing harassment, hair removal by civilian guards, and confinement in psychiatric hospitals by doctors who deemed non-conformism a symptom of schizophrenia—but also presents a surprising argument. It suggests that the land of Soviet hippies and the world of late socialism were not entirely incompatible but rather meshed surprisingly well. Ultimately, it was not the KGB but the arrival of capitalism in the 1990s that brought an end to the Soviet hippie system.

Weight: 868g
Dimension: 163 x 241 x 38 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198788324