Dropping-Out of Socialism: Alternative Life-Styles in the Socialist Bloc 1960-1990

The project 'Dropping out of Socialism' is a study of the hidden side of life in the former Soviet bloc. It investigates those cultures and life-styles under socialism which literally 'dropped out' of the picture - both out of the picture that was portrayed by the Eastern European communist regimes to its own public and the West and the picture that has since been created by historians and political scientists looking at the last decades of communism in Europe. 'Dropping out of Socialism' is devoted to the historical documentation and interpretation of social phenomena on the margins of socialist society: beatniks, hippies, punks, trampers, new-agers, hobos and any other group of people who had decided to ignore rather than comply with the official socialist code of behaviour and participation.

Most people express surprise when told that such cultures existed at all under the repressive conditions of the Eastern European communist regimes. Indeed, even in Eastern Europe itself little is known about alternative forms of life-style and ideology under socialism and much that is known is clouded in myth and prejudice. Drop-out cultures suffered not only from repression meted out by the regime but also from widespread social condemnation. Denied access to the official public sphere, persecuted by the security organs and eyed with mistrust by the upright, socialist citizen, drop-out cultures under socialism live on mostly in the memory of its participants and in the photographic and cinematic evidence of their heydays in the 1970s and 80s. Yet this memory is quickly disappearing with its participants (many of whom due to an extraordinarily unhealthy life-style do not live into old age).

The aim of our project is thus double-fold. Firstly we intend to collect valuable evidence of and about countercultures under late socialism and make this evidence available to future researchers and those interested in the study of youth- and countercultures. The project will rely on oral history as well as on sources generated by the secret service and the communist parties. It aims to recover the multiple pieces of art and writing that were produced in private by drop-out cultures as well as seek out films and photographs produced by groups who often consciously fashioned themselves through self-produced artefacts. Secondly we seek to explore the context and manifold interpretations of drop-out cultures under socialism by engaging in a concentrated dialogue with scholars from other discipline and other countries. The principal grant holders will engage in detailed research into hitherto under-documented case studies of drop-out cultures in their field of expertise, which will put much new knowledge on the historical map. The origins, development and fate of the Soviet hippie movement is so far only known in sketches and shrouded in much legend and misconceptions. Nor do we know enough about the cultural and political impact of Western countercultural trends in East Germany. Yet an equally important part of the project is the contextualization of these cultures into their larger setting: late socialist societies and systems. Co-operation with scholars engaged in research into drop-out cultures in the former Soviet bloc, representing a variety of disciplines from the history of art to sociology, will provide our research with the necessary framework to ask larger questions: To what extent was it possible to drop out of socialism? What can countercultures tell us about the state of mainstream society? How did countercultures differ in East and West or between the different Eastern European and Soviet societies? Did the existence of alternative life-styles contribute to the down-fall of communism?

Youth policy makers
This project is all about dealing with societal drop-outs and their culture. Most of our subjects will have been young or youngish when they decided to leave mainstream society and culture. Their study and evaluation necessarily involves understanding their motivations and actions. While the project examines socialist societies, which demanded a large degree of conformity, and explores a time that is thirty years in the past, many of its findings will be of value to modern-day policy makers and youth specialists. Generational conflict, rebellion against mainstream culture, rejection of commercialism, the search for higher meaning in communitarian movements, itinerant life-styles etc. still provide the hallmarks of many non-conformist youth cultures today.

Teachers and Youth Workers
A project whose primary goal is not to 'solve' the youth problem, but understand young drop-outs and alternatives can have great educational and socially integrative benefits. Learning about the history of alternative youth cultures can bestow a sense of value to young people, who consider themselves outside the norms and structures of normal British society, e.g.gang members, politically or culturally radicalised youth etc. The material and output of the project could thus be of great benefit to teachers and youth workers, especially, but not only, those who work with youth at the margins of society. Hopefully, via the digital archive and its usage in school and universities, young people will realize that established history is not just about important leaders and great events, but that their very own culture and existence is as worthy of recording and safe-keeping as that of politicians and economic moguls.

Museums and Media
The collection of artefacts and their presentation in a digital archive will also be of interest to museums of contemporary art, many of which such as the Tate Modern and London's Hayward Gallery have in the past showcased the unofficial art of socialist societies. Often historians collect non-mainstream art long before museum and galleries realize their importance. The paintings, writings, photos and films of drop-out cultures will broaden our understanding of 'socialist' art and at the same time widen our general sense of who creates art and when.

Local Communities
A better and more differentiated understanding of Eastern European history is also very important in the light of the many new British residents from these countries, who have started to form substantial communities in British towns and cities. It is crucial that people understand these communities not simply as a supply of cheap labour and potential competitors for benefits, but as people whose history has much in common with their own, and is as multi-faceted as that of Britain in the same period.

There is a wide and varied potential audience for the output of our research project. We are thus committed to ensure as wide as possible a dissemination of its material This will be achieved through the proposed digital archive, which aims to present the primary material collected in a well-ordered and easy-to-understand manner, e.g. providing translation, short explanatory sections and suitable visual presentation. We aim to organize the archive in such a way that it is of use both to the academic scholar and the wider public.