In every Serbian home (even in multiple instances) was “Rambo”, “Terminator”, Madonna. There homemade drink Coca-Cola, but “the Brothers Karamazov”, “Anna Karenina” and “the Barber of Siberia” much less “drop” in the house of Serbia. Also a few of those who says “To your health”, drinking vodka.
Perhaps that is why Director Emir Kusturica said that it was important to popularize Russian culture in Serbia because it is the basis of Slavic culture, referring to Russian writers, Russian music and Russian cinema.
This is extremely important, as Kusturica said, because the process of Americanization is almost complete, and if so, you need to open a new page.
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The influence of Western pop culture became more limited, and only less tangible. So says Alexander Gajic from the Institute for European studies. He also believes that Americanization is still ongoing, but its quality is reduced and it no longer attracts people, because it reduces the intellectual level and contributes to the infantilization of the public.
The influence of pop culture from Russia, on the other hand, there is, however, according to Gajić, not as big as the West, primarily because formed on the Western model.
“The tendency to strengthen the influence of Russian culture is, although it is weaker than in the case of Western influences. I think Kusturica is aware of the need to find a balance that Serbia has become more susceptible to the cultural influence of the country which spiritually and culturally closer to us,” says Gajic.
According to the journalist and translator of Ljubanci Milincic, the Soviet Union was a closed country, which has not permeated Western culture. There was no “export” of Soviet culture.
Soviet Union did not think about their image in the world, says Ilincic, while the priorities of the Soviet Union and the United States differed.
“America has done a lot to promote a positive image in the world, so we have watched many Hollywood movies about the happy country in which Americans live like in a fairy tale, and is about truth and freedom for all. USSR, in turn, devoted their attention to the reconstruction of the country ravaged by the Second world war. The Soviet Union has committed against the countries of the Warsaw Pact, and built cities and factories, financed them and gave them the opportunity to develop, although in the West talked about the fact that the Soviet Union has transformed these countries into their colonies,” — says Milincic.
She stressed that people behind the iron curtain, read, wrote, they had their own music… But none of this reached the West. Americans do all their “exported”.
The most Western Russian sister
From a historical point of view, according to Alexander Gajic, Serbia — part of the Eastern Orthodox world and is in the same cultural and civilizational categories, and Russia. And yet Serbia is a country in the South-East of Europe, so is the westernmost part of the Eastern Orthodox cultural area. In this regard, Serbia has been the strongest Western influence.
When in the 19th century Serbia revived its statehood, Russia’s influence was much stronger, especially in the sphere of the Church and ecclesiastical literature, said gajić.
As a further development of the Serbian state remained the influence of the representatives of Russian official and Russian populism, which itself identified the Serbian political movements, mainly the radicals in the Serbian Principality and Kingdom.
In the 20th century, reminds Gajic, exceptionally strong was the influence of the white Russian emigration, which raised the cultural level in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. If judged from the point of view of intensity, then, according to Gajić, probably the most important was the influence of Russian immigrants in the interwar period. They even influenced architecture. King Alexander has granted asylum to many eminent intellectuals and professors.
After the Second world war Soviet influence, says Gajic, wore ideological-propagandistic. But it was only from 1945 until the resolution of the information Bureau in 1948 and the split between Tito and Stalin.
After that Yugoslavia was opened to the influence of Western culture, precisely in that period of American pop culture began to dominate, first in North America and Western Europe and then worldwide.
Rockets — under lock and key, money — movies
“With the 50-ies of the last century we have greatly enhanced the influence of the West and its pop culture, while Russian-Soviet influence during the cold war remained only in the classical field, that is, primarily dealt with classical literature and a little science, or rather, expert knowledge,” says Gajic.
This situation was aggravated after the cold war, as add Gajic, even in spite of sanctions and war 90 years. Western and American influence in the world dominated, including through the soft power of Americans in pop culture.
“She turned into an empty, formalistic, formulaic, and, most importantly, pop culture ideologiserad, representing a form of cheap propaganda that no longer resonate in the minds and hearts of those who “consume” this type of culture. On the other hand, since 2000, the year Russia, realizing the role of soft power and pop culture, began systematically promote their least in the post-Soviet space,” says Gajic.
However, he sees a problem that really in her pop culture Russia repeats the patterns, proven solutions and ways of expression that have proven themselves in the West.
Only now, says Lyubinka Milincic, we can say that Russia has reached a certain level, which can now focus its attention to the formation of its image in the world.
“Fighting now, using mostly not a weapon, and the impact that circulate through culture and media. Earlier in Russian, unfortunately, didn’t have time to do it, and the Americans had plenty of it, as well as money. Russian such money was not. When there was a choice between creating a rocket that will protect from potential attacks, and promote books in the world, the choice was made in favor of the rockets,” concludes Milincic.
