The Russian Reading Revolution: Print Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras

by Stephen Lovell

Of all of Soviet cultural myths, none was more resilient than the belief that the USSR had the world's greatest readers. This book explains how the 'Russian reading myth' took hold in the 1920s and 1930s, how it was supported by a monopolistic and homogenizing system of book production and distribution, and how it was challenged in the post-Stalin era; first, by the latent expansion and differentiation of the reading public, and then, more dramatically, by the economic and cultural changes of the 1990s.

223 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2000

About the author

Stephen Lovell is professor of modern history at the King's College, London. He received his MA and PhD from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University of London, after studying for his BA at King’s College, Cambridge.