ABSTRACT
Counter-revolutions always follow revolutions. They, in turn, are fol-
lowed by a search for people guilty of revolutionary excess – and their
punishment. Russian history is full of such examples.
(President Vladimir Putin, 2001)
The most important and popular stories in Russia have traditionally been
those of literature; that function is currently being fulfilled by TV drama. In
prior decades, socialist media repeatedly boasted to the outside world that nobody reads more than Soviet citizens; nowadays, however, opinion polls
reveal with equal frequency that more than half of Russia’s public has read
little or no literature in recent memory. Elderly arbiters of Slavic culture
hang their heads and intone somewhat ominously that the printed page has
lost its battle for cultural prominence. The nine chapters that follow,
although cognizant of any such wretchedness, aim to paint a less miserable
picture; they examine visual tales of artful, hopeful change that Russians
are telling themselves in today’s primetime. Televised yarns in fact often make considerable and respectful use of literature in order to reassess the
nation’s sad past and/or posit some happier future, at least for social
microcosms such as friends, families, and starry-eyed lovers.
