This master's thesis deals with a youth subculture that formed in the Soviet Union shortly after the Second World War. It is a marginal youth phenomenon that was formed within the Soviet post-war reality, but was not consistent with the official youth culture determined by the authorities. Bright clothes, ties with patterns, unusual dance moves, casual walking, haughty gaze, and interest in Western culture testify to the fact that the core of the subculture was a desire for a different lifestyle. But even more important is the fact that stiliagi were not formed in the social underground, but wanted to stand out and be noticed. In the master's thesis, we first explore the social and political circumstances of the post-war period, which significantly influenced the birth of stiliagi. Next, we focus on the nature of the representatives of the subculture, we investigate their cultural practice, the way of creating a subcultural style and the process of spreading and differentiating the stiliagi subculture in the 1950s. In the last part, we devote ourselves to revealing the reaction of the bearers of moral boundaries and present the reasons why the authorities, especially in the period of the Soviet Union's thaw, recognized the subculture as a threat to the Soviet regime. We conclude with an analysis of the media list of main representatives in the Krokodil magazine and an explanation of how the strengthening of social control in the 1950s transformed non-conformist stiliagi into social deviants.
|