Music of the Soviet Era as Public History (Based on Materials of the Arzamas Website)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the phenomenon of Soviet music as presented in the Russian‐language educational project Arzamas (2015–2023). Posted in the public domain of the Internet, the materials on the Arzamas website fully fit into the interdisciplinary discourse of public history. In this article, the author selects and from the perspective of cultural recycling analyses an array of materials of the Soviet period presented on the website: from folk and Soviet mass songs, gypsy and classical romance (including romance in cinema) to jazz, symphony, ballet, and break dance. The article traces how the authors of different genre materials interpret selected works and the historical and cultural profiles of their creators from the point of view of postmodernity. Special attention is paid to the principles according to which the website forms a musical image of the Soviet period for the modern audience (which statistically consists of Millennials and, if taking into account the Arzamas Children’s Room, the next two generations — Z and Alpha). The author of this article makes a conclusion that what is meant by Soviet music in the Arzamas project is compositions created from the 1920s to the late 1960s (early 1970s) and listened to by different social groups. The dominant type of a musical composition is a song in various modifications. Soviet music (mostly non-academic) is treated as an integral part of the country’s history which emotionally accurately reflects political and cultural changes. In such a context academic music becomes a peripheral phenomenon: only two composers are highlighted — Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich — but shown as victims of the Soviet system.

Keywords

• history of soviet music
• song
• sergei prokofiev
• dmitri shostakovich
• matvei blanter
• public history
• the arzamas website
• cultural recycling