What We Are Made Of
Darina Abuzarova
What We Are Made Of tells a story of an alternative history of Russian culture and society. The center of the book is Russian youth and their subcultures that began to appear in the USSR during Ottepel (1950 - 1965) and Perestroika (1980s). The book seeks to tell not only the history, but also the development of concepts such as freedom or creative expression behind the iron certain. Another important factor of this book is different design objects that illustrates the time, they show the uniqueness of Russian design, music, and production.
Generations of Russian people grew up in the subcultures covered in this book, and also formed them. In chronological order, the book shows how one can see entire movements grew out of underground and even sometimes forbidden clubs. We are familiar with Hippies, Dudes, New Wavers, Breakers, Punks, Rockers, Skaters and Ravers, but we would never guess that their appearance came out of protest and desire of change. Most of them did not orient themselves towards foreign analogs at all, rather they perceived and translated them in their own way. I wanted to show that in Russia and in the USSR, just as all around the world, there was cultural progress even during this period.
The book has bilingual typesetting, in order to tell a story of the important cultural changes to a wider range of readers. All the information in the book were found in contemporary or archival sources, including photographs by Igor Mukhin and others.