ABSTRACT

Postcolonial studies is a well-established academic field, rich in theory, but it is based mostly on postcolonial experiences in former West European colonial empires. This book takes a different approach, considering postcolonial theory in relation to the former Soviet bloc. It both applies existing postcolonial theory to this different setting, and also uses the experiences of former Soviet bloc countries to refine and advance theory. Drawing on a wide range of sources, and presenting insights and material of relevance to scholars in a wide range of subjects, the book explores topics such as Soviet colonality as co-constituted with Soviet modernity, the affective structure of identity-creation in national and imperial subjects, and the way in which cultural imaginaries and everyday materialities were formative of Soviet everyday experience.

chapter |29 pages

Introduction

Colonialism in camouflage

chapter 2|25 pages

The location of knowledge

Soviet area studies facing the postcolonial question

chapter 3|24 pages

Can a modern nation-state be colonized?

Reformulating the framework of postcolonial studies

chapter 4|34 pages

Modernity with a smiley face

Soviet modernity, Soviet coloniality

chapter 5|30 pages

Colonial layers and the hybridization of the past

Layers of national modernity in the Baltics

chapter 6|32 pages

From colonial fear to decolonizing laughter

Deconstructing the colonial binarisms of ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘the colonizer’ and ‘the colonized’

chapter 7|28 pages

Cultural imaginaries and everyday materialities

Living in a Soviet home

chapter 8|12 pages

Consequences

Everyday dissensus and the end of empire