Twórczość Bułata Okudżawy jako przejaw radzieckiej kultury alternatywnej
The work of Bulat Okudzawa as a manifestation of Soviet alternative culture

Summary/Abstract: The times of communist totalitarianism and the social realism ubiquitous in art – “culture embroiled in socialism, fully appropriated by the ideology” were a difficult period for the Russian culture. Special resolutions of the Party on literature, theatre, film and music were one of the measures to enforce total subordination of this sphere of life to the authorities. Artists opposing the prevailing ideological and aesthetic standards were forced to issue their politically incorrect works beyond the borders of the communist bloc in the so -called tamizdat or to duplicate works personally – in the so called samizdat. A question arises whether free creation was at all possible in the official circulation at the time of Soviet censorship? An analysis of the culture of that period allows for an argument that such was the poetry of the Russian bards, which was pioneered by Bulat Okudzhava. The poetry of Okudzhava and its popularity with nearly the entire Soviet society is a phenomenon in the communist bloc. The poetry has a libertarian dimension, manifesting itself in its autonomy from the dictates of the power and ideology and the accompanying lies. The author avoided both the tamizdat and samizdat and also conformism. His liberation poetry became known officially and thanks to its universal values it became an alternative to the Soviet culture.

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