Introduction: Theoretical Common Places

Rubber Plants and the Soviet Order of Things

Archeology of the Common Place

A Labyrinth without a Monster

The Mythologist as Traveler

1. Mythologies of Everyday Life

Byt: Daily Grind and Domestic Trash

Poshlost': Banality, Obscenity, Bad Taste

Meshchanstvo: Middle Class, Middlebrow

Private Life and Russian Soul

Truth, Sincerity, Affectation

Kul'turnost': The Totalitarian Lacquer Box

Soviet Songs: From Stalin's Fairy Tale to "Good-bye, Amerika"

2. Living in Common Places: The Communal Apartment

Family Romance and Communal Utopia

Art and the Housing Crisis: Intellectuals in the Closet

Welcome to the Communal Apartment

Psychopathology of Soviet Everyday Life

Interior Decoration

The Ruins of Utopia

A Homecoming, 1991

3. Writing Common Places: Graphomania

History of the Literary Disease

The Forgotten Classics

The Genius of the People and the Conceptual Police

Glasnost', Graphomania, and Popular Culture

A Taxi Ride with a Graphomaniac

4. Postcommunism, Postmodernism

The End of the Soviet World: From the Barricades to the Bazaar

Glasnost' Streetwalking: Fallen Monuments and Rising Dolls

Stalin's Cinematic Charisma, or History as Kitsch

Trashy Jewels of Women Artists

Merchant Renaissance and Cultural Scandals

The Obscure Object of Advertisement

Conclusion: Nostalgia for the Common Place

Notes

Index