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Everyday Life Amid the celebratory propaganda surrounding collectivization, industrialization , Stakhanovite labor enthusiasm, and Five-Year Plan productivity targets , 180 million Soviet citizens trudged through an everyday existence tha t was considerably less heroic and triumphant. Along the way, they grumbled about a stunning array of complaints that complicated their daily lives, from overcrowded housing and public transport to rationing and long queues for basic necessities. Equally galling was the stifling officialese (shtamp) of Soviet mass culture, the careerism of party bureaucrats and the sycophancy of the creative intelligentsia. While many of these expressions of discontent are interesting as historical artifacts of the era, they are also worth examining on account of the language in which they were expressed. After all, as sarcastic as they are, the jokes almost always rely on vocabulary and metaphors popularized by the state itself. Why would ordinary people choose to vent their anger and frustration in such orthodox terms? One possible explanation for this curious phenomenon stems from the pervasiveness of official sloganeering, analytical categories and cultural values in the state-sponsored mass culture of the 1930s. Stephen Kotkin, for instance, argues that this rhetoric was ubiquitous enough to reach hegemonic proportions, forcing even the most embittered to "speak Bolshevik" when expressing their discontent1 Alternately, this vocabulary and imagery can be seen as an intrinsic part of the Stalin era's culture of political humor, inasmuch as many of the jokes of the 1930s were based on the imitation, ridicule, and subversion of official "discourse." The presence of sarcasm and satire in these orthodox-sounding jokes, in other words, points as much to Soviet jokesters' individualism and capacity for critical thinking as it does to the hegemonic power of the regime's rhetoric. KaK BM OTHOCHTeCh K COBeTCKOI1 What sort of relationship do y ou have BAaCTJlI? to Soviet power? I1epBbIi1: OTBeT: First answer: - KaK K co6CTBeHHoM )l(eHe: He Jllo6JlIO, - The same as I do with my own wife: HO TepnAlo. I don't love her, but I put up with her2 1 Kotkin, MagHetic Moulltaill, chap. 5. 2For variants, see Lyons, Moscow Carousel, 327; HPSSS, no. 610, schedule B, vol. 20, 3. 88 PO LITICAL H UMOR UNDER STALIN BTOPOH OTseT: - KaK K co6CTBeHHOM .>KeHe: H eMHO)l(KO AI06AIO, H eM HO)l(KO 6010(1), M cTpaeTh KaK XOl.leTOI Apyrol1. AMcopa, 1.J.l1CTMAbll\MKa carror Cnpall111BaeT KAM e HT: - KaK Te6e HpaBMTCJI ConeTCKa51 BAaCTb? -XOpOllll1M COneTCKI1I1 BJlaCTb, Qt.I e Hb XOPOllIMM, )l(aAb TDALKO, !.lTO TaKOM Ml1HHblM .... KaKaJI pa 3HMQa Me.>KAY MaTOM 11 Al1aMaToM? MaToM KPOlOT, a A,l1aM3TOM npl1KpblBaIoT. M TO 11 Apyroe-M01ll,HOe opY)l(He B pYKax npoAeTapHaTa. OAl1H eBpeM, 3a nOllH.sUI aHKeTY, B rpae 0 rrapTl1I1HOCTl1 Hanl1call«BKTI(6) ). Y Hero cnpalllMBalOT: - 4TO 3TO BLI TaM Hanl1CaAI1? BLI )I(e 6ecnapT11MHbli1! - 51 TaK HYKa3aA . BKIT(6) 3Ha4HT: BpOAe KaK TIapTl1MHblM, B cKo6KaxEecnapn1MHbli1 :. P eAaKTO p IT POBl1HlJ)1aAbHOM ra3eTbi l1CnpaBAJleT 3arOJlOBOK HaA 3aMeTKOM 0 H eCt.IaCTHblX cAyqa51X C aBTo6ycOM. BMeCTO «ABT06yCbI H e ,40A)I(Hbl AaBl1Tb AloAeJ;i» nl1weT: «ABT06yCbl He AOA.)KHbl ,4aBl1Tb npOAeTa pl1e B». Second answer: - The same as I do with my own wife: I love her a bit, fear her a bit, and desperately long for a different one. An Aisor, a bootblack from the Caucasus, is asked by a client: - What do you think about Soviet power? - Soviet power is good, very good. It's just too bad it has to go on for so long. WhaYs the difference between a diatribe and the Marxist dialectic?3 A diatribe lets you set people straight while the dialectic allows you to spin them in circles. Both are powerful weapons in the hands of the proletariat. While filling out a form, a Jew w rites "ACP(b)" under "party affiliation." He's asked: - Why did you write that? You're not a party member! -And that's what I wrote. ACP(b) stands for: "Approximately Communist Party, but...." The editor of a provincial newspaper corrected the headline of a story on bus accidents. In the place of "Busses Must Not Run People Over," he wrote "Busses Must Not Run Proletarians Over.,,4 3In Russian this word play relies on the similarity between "mal" and "diamal." "Mar' is both the abbreviation for "materialism" and a term for a particularly obscene type of swearing. "Diamat," or "dialectical materialism," is a complex part of Marxist theory that few Soviets ever really understood. 4 For a related joke about...

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