Dangerous Soviet Things: Urban Legends and Fears in the USSR (Opasnye Sovetskie Veshchi)

Lice-infested jeans, maggots under the skin of an African visitor, a portrait of Mao Zedong appearing at night on a Chinese rug, swastikas hidden in the structure of buildings, chewing gum laced with crushed glass—this is an incomplete list of Soviet urban legends about dangerous things. This book by renowned folklorists and anthropologists A. Arkhipova (RANEPA, RSUH, NES) and A. Kirzyuk (RANEPA) is the first anthropological and folkloristic study dedicated to the fears of the Soviet people. Many of these fears found expression in texts and practices little understood by our contemporaries: in the 1930s, people searched for Trotsky's profile on matchboxes, and in the 1970s, rumors were spread about treats poisoned by Americans. The book explains why such fears arose, how they evolved into rumors and urban legends, how they influenced the behavior of Soviet people, and sometimes gave rise to large-scale moral panics. The study draws on survey data, interviews, memoirs, diaries, and archival documents.