Sailors and youth consumption in Soviet seaports during the Cold War period
Sailors and youth consumption in Soviet seaports during the Cold War period

Summary/Abstract: Communication with soviet and foreign sailors was one of the most common ways in the USSR to join the western way of life. Structuring this communication was made by official and non-official institutions. Material and non-material exchange constructed special West image which sometimes have little in common with the real West. Distribution of propaganda materials, black-marketing and exchanging of western LPs are analyzing in the article as the main ways of constructing Imaginary West (term proposed by A. Yurchak). I suppose that Imaginary West was built with the help of western goods which “western image” meant more than their utility and anti-Soviet content of propaganda materials. Cultural exchange had not only influenced the individual cognition but also created new social milieus. Rerecording and exchanging of western albums were the example of such milieu creation. Took its birth inside friend circles in 1960–1970s that process had been officially organized as informal associations in 1980s.

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