Stalinist Values

Melding original archival research with new scholarship in the field, Hoffmann describes Soviet cultural and behavioural norms in such areas as leisure activities, social hygiene, family life and sexuality. He demonstrates that the Soviet state's campaign to effect social improvement by intervening in the lives of its citizens was not unique but echoed the efforts of other European governments, both fascist and liberal, in the interwar period. Indeed, in Europe, America and Stalin's Russia, governments sought to inculcate many of the same values - from order and efficiency to sobriety and literacy. For Hoffmann, what remains distinctive about the Soviet case is the collectivist orientation of official culture and the degree of coercion the state applied to pursue its goals.