Russia at play
Subtitle: leisure activities at the end of the tsarist era
By: Louise McReynolds.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Ithaca
Language: eng
Number of pages: 309
Subjects: Leisure -- Russia -- History; Middle class -- Recreation -- Russia -- History; Russia -- Social life and customs
Other titles: Leisure activities at the end of the tsarist era
Description: "In Russia at Play, Louise McReynolds portrays a vibrant, rapidly changing culture in rich detail. Her account encompasses the "legitimate" stage, vaudeville, nightclubs, restaurants, sports, tourism, and the silent movie industry. McReynolds reveals a pluralist and dynamic society and shows how the new icons of mass culture affected the subsequent gendering of identities.".

"Leisure-time activities, McReynolds finds, allowed Russians to re-create themselves, to develop a modern identity that allowed for different senses of the self depending on the circumstances.

The society that spawned these impulses would disappear in Russia for decades under the combined blows of revolution, civil war, and collectivization, but questions of personal identity are again high on the agenda as Russia makes the transition from a collectivist society to one in which the dominant ethos remains undefined."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The origins of Russia's legitimate stage; title: Commercializing the legitimate stage; title: Sporting life as modern life; title: The actress and the wrestler: gendering identities; title: The Russian tourist at home and abroad; title: "Steppin' out" in the Russian night at the fin-de-siècle; title: In the whirlwind of a waltz: performing in the night; title: Tsarist Russia's dream factories.