Suggested Reading

I was just thinking that it would be nice if we collect a bunch of readings/links that might be relevant/inspirational to our subject and discussions. Please feel free to add to this growing list.

Course on Soviet Politics and Society, 1917-1991 (there are nice suggested readings). I especially like Bitter Waters.

From literature:
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov.
This is probably one of my favorite books of all time.

Invisible Cities – Italio Calvino

Crime and Punishment – Dostoevsky
Bastiaan mentioned the inner courtyard life yesterday, referencing this book

How much land does a man need? [pdf] – Tolstoy

From Yulia, PHD Seminar on Public Space:

Due to our start in April we missed an international interdisciplinary PhD seminar on a similar subject – “Public space”, held at Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft in March 2009. This seminar aimed to set up discussions towards the current transformation of public spaces. Regarding the themes and problems it touched we can learn a lot for our project on the transformation of communal space in Russian mass-housing environment. Papers online!

Irony of Fate

From Irony of Fate, 1975. This is a beloved Russian classic, based on the idea that everything everywhere is the same in Russia…from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Overture Cartoon

First minutes (FRENCH)

Please see here for the English version (watch 5:25 – 7:26 minute mark)

From IMDB

“A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Years eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely – just typical Soviet-type ‘economy’ architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What’s more – Nadya’s fiancé also finds him there…”