1988 Reports

The Frontiers of Soviet Culture: Reaching the Limits?

Condee, Nancy; Padunov, Vladimir

Since the Twenty-Seventh Party Congress in February 1986, cultural perestroika (restructuring) has consisted of an attempt on the part of the liberal intelligentsia to redefine the boundaries of the permissible in creative and intellectual work.! Its leading representatives have included Elem Klimov and Vadim Abdrashitov in film, Evgenii Evtushenko and Andrei Voznesenskii in literature, Vitalii Korotich and Egor Iakovlev in journalism, Sergei Zalygin and Grigorii Baklanov in literary journals, and Kiril Lavrov and Mikhail Shatrov in theatre. While prominent figures in television are more difficult to identify (with the exception of Vladimir Pozner), the broadcasting evidence of perestroika would certainly include the youth program “View,” “Spotlight on Perestroika,” “Position,” and the numerous telebridges between the Soviet Union and Western countries.