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Finding a home for television in the USSR, 1950-1970

Roth-Ey, K; (2007) Finding a home for television in the USSR, 1950-1970. Slavic Review , 66 (2) pp. 278-306. 10.2307/20060221. Green open access

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Abstract

In this article, Kristin Roth-Ey explores the complex and often convoluted reception of television technology in the USSR of the 1950s and 1960s. Television held out the potential to fulfill the long-standing dream of a universal Soviet culture - propaganda, art, and science delivered directly to every home - and it offered a compelling symbol of a modern Soviet "way of life" in a Cold War context as well. Soviet consumers and technological enthusiasts embraced the new medium with gusto and played an important role in its promotion. As Roth-Ey elucidates, however, the nature of television production and consumption - and, in particular, the Soviets' decision to promote a home-based broadcasting system - put television in implicit conflict with important Soviet traditions, ideals, and, at times, interest groups. The development of the mature form of centralized Soviet television symbolized by Moscow's Ostankino complex is the story of how political and cultural elites, consumers, and the Soviet system in an abstract sense struggled to make a "home" for television technology in the USSR.

Type: Article
Title: Finding a home for television in the USSR, 1950-1970
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.2307/20060221
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > SSEES
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14030
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