Stiladzy – radziecki wariant pokolenia ’52 i jego obraz w filmie Stiladzy Walerego Todorowskiego
Stilyagi – the Soviet Version of Generation ’52 and its Image in Valery Todorovsky’s Film Stilyagi

Summary/Abstract: Stilyagi – the Soviet Version of Generation ’52 and its Image in Valery Todorovsky’s Film StilyagiThis article is devoted to the first Soviet subculture – the stilyagi, who appeared in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1940s. They were part of a wider, European phenomenon, the so-called “Generation ‘52”, a wave of subcultures fascinated by the American way of life. They expressed their individuality, firstly, by wearing fashionable clothes (preferably of foreign label) and, secondly, by listening to forbidden jazz and passion for expressive dances. They demonstrated the hedonistic approach to life and total lack of commitment to the idea of building communism propagated by communist propaganda. Although they did not proclaim any political ideology and avoided political issues, they were fought against by the state authorities. The fight against the stilyagi movement, however, was relatively mild as for the Stalinist era. This resulted from the fact that its members came from the families of party nomenclature, intellectual and artistic elites.The text presents a comparative analysis of the studies available in the literature on the subject with the image of the subculture presented in the popular film by Valery Todorovsky entitled Stilyagi. The main purpose of the analysis is to answer the question: to what extent the discussed film is a narrative history of the first Soviet movement contesting official cultural and entertainment standards, and not an attempt at its mythologization.

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