Soviet Is the Best!

This book is a historical study presented in the format of an engaging novel. It offers a fresh look at the USSR era for those who grew up in it—and helps you understand what it was like for those who didn’t live through it.

The audiobook covers the history of fashion and style in the USSR: from the strict ideals of the first years to the appearance of fashion magazines and beauty institutions. It tells how, despite shortages and ideological barriers, people sought comfort and elegance.

In the Soviet Union, there were many not only functional but also aesthetically attractive things. At first, care about one’s appearance was considered a leftover of bourgeois culture, while the emphasis was on spacious, bright spaces. However, as the country shifted from the idea of world revolution to building socialism in a single nation, many aspects of peaceful life—including the desire for beauty—were rehabilitated. Fashion magazines appeared, model houses opened, and the Institute of Beauty opened in Moscow. The book explores how throughout the Soviet era people’s desire to look beautiful and live in an aesthetic environment collided with a lack of resources and the ideology of simplicity—and how ideas about it changed over time.