ABSTRACT
During the 1970s and early 1980s the folklore revival movement opposed the government-sponsored version of folklore and remained loosely organized and free-wheeling; in the late 1980s and 1990s that situation changed. With glasnost, preservation of the national heritage became something of a buzzword, and revivalists succeeding in winning some governmental and popular attention to their concerns. By the late 1990s not only oppositional revivalists, but nearly everyone in the folk performance field, used the language of revival. Yet it is debatable whether the popular performance of folk music and dance became more oriented toward preservation. In some respects it remained a cliché that had changed little since the Soviet era. As one critic observed, ‘Communist kitsch has found a solid niche in Russian popular culture.’1
