Stilyagi
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Stilyagi (Russian: стиляги, IPA:
Today,[.
Characteristics
Their
At the dawn of the phenomenon, the stilyagi look was rather a caricature, inspired by movies from abroad of recent years. It resembled the zoot suit but combined different bright colors. By the late fifties, the look had evolved into something more elegant and stylish. Typical stilyagi wear included narrow pants, long jackets, narrow ties, bright-colored shirts, and thick soled shoes.
Usually stilyagi enjoyed popular American music of the 1940s, especially
History and legacy
The first stilyagi were from the generation of young adults in their early twenties who had lived through the hard times of
The main cause of this phenomenon was the struggle between capitalism and communism-led societies. The enforced uniformity of the Soviet thought and the heavy weight of its dictatorship were the only politically correct form of view, lifestyle and self-expression permitted during Stalinism. Therefore, the stilyagi sought to follow the modern ideology and morality in order to avoid Soviet pressure and its influence on society.
The stilyagi were largely repressed until
In the mid-1950s, many people were arrested for making musical recordings on
In the late 1950s, the catchphrase "Today he dances jazz, but tomorrow [he] will sell [his] homeland" (Сегодня он танцует джаз, а завтра Родину продаст, Segodnya on tantsuet dzhaz, a zavtra Rodinu prodast), became the stilyagi's signature and the key idea underlying their social protest. Stilyagi were recognized as an official musical, artistic and pop culture movement that later took on further modern influences, notably
Following the international festival of 1957, however, the USSR became more open to modern culture. The official ban on jazz music was removed, and many records became available in stores from the 1960s. Admiration of modern music, especially the rock-n-roll wave of the sixties, met more tolerance from official ideology and little active resistance. All this contributed to the decline of the movement in the early sixties, as former stilyagi abandoned the lifestyles of their youth, while the next generation felt no need to follow such a lifestyle in order to enjoy modern culture or a nonpolitical way of life.
The influence of the stilyagi movement on Soviet-Russian culture is tremendous. Many of today's most respected Russian musicians, writers, film editors and other cultural personalities belonged to the movement, or shared its free, bohemian lifestyle. There is a 2008 Russian comedy musical film, Stilyagi, about this subculture.
See also
- 1950s youth fashion
- Hep cat, another Western counterpart to the Stilyagi
- La Sape, a similar movement that originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1980s
- 1980s in African fashion
- Swenka, a South African variant in the 2010s
- 2010s in African fashion
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a 1966 novel by Robert A. Heinlein describing a similar fictional subculture on the Moon
Notes
- ^ "Jazz on Bones: X-Ray Sound Recordings". kk.org. August 28, 2006. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
- ^ Tracy Donovan Drake. "The Jazz-Rock Counterculture is Born". The Historical Political Development of Soviet Rock Music. Archived from the original on June 21, 2009. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
References
- Alan M. Ball (2003). Imagining America: Influence and Images in Twentieth-Century Russia. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 309. ISBN 0-7425-2792-1
Further reading
- Georgy Litvinov, Стиляги, как это было. Документальный роман, a documentary book about the subculture based on recollection of famous stilyagas, such as jazzman Aleksei Kozlov (ru:Козлов, Алексей Семёнович).
- Чуваки на хатах, Rodina Magazine, no. 7, 2005 (in Russian)
