Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism in his ‘Secret Speech’ of 1956 brought with it the impossibility of the revival of an effectual utopian Soviet master-narrative and a consequent decline in the effectiveness of Marxist-Leninist ideology to unite citizens under a single ‘Soviet’ identity. One of the major features of this period was the emergence of a strong Russian nationalist identity among certain sectors of the intelligentsia. This article considers the composer Georgii Sviridov's engagement with Russian nationalism during the Brezhnev years, through the lens of his 1977 cycle for voice and piano, Otchalivshaia Rus’ (Russia Cast Adrift).