Kyrill Kunakhovich. Communism's public sphere: Culture as politics in Cold War Poland and East Germany
Hayton, Jeffrey P.
Hayton, Jeffrey P.
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Original Date
Digitization Date
Issue Date
2024-12-05
Type
Book review
Genre
Keywords
Communism,Cold War,Poland,East Germany
Subjects (LCSH)
Citation
Jeff Hayton, Kyrill Kunakhovich. Communism’s Public Sphere: Culture as Politics in Cold War Poland and East Germany. The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 4, December 2024, Pages 1823–1824, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae425
Abstract
On October 9, 1989, as tensions between demonstrators and security forces on Leipzig’s Karl Marx Square threatened to explode into violence, Kurt Masur, conductor of the Gewandhaus orchestra, addressed the crowd. Reading from a statement he and others had written that afternoon, he asked for calm so that “peaceful dialogue” might take place (1). After the request, the pressure hanging over the square suddenly dissipated: the crowds marched that night, and authorities let them. Exactly one month later, the Berlin Wall opened, and within a year, communist East Germany had ceased to exist. As unlikely a hero as he was, Masur’s role during these tumultuous events shouldn’t be surprising. As Kyrill Kunakhovich explains, he was able to mediate between the people and the People’s State because “he had done so his whole career” (2). Indeed, the central contention of Kunakhovich’s splendid new book, Communism’s Public Sphere, is that cultural spaces had long functioned as sites where authorities, producers, and consumers negotiated the public good under communism.
Table of Contents
Description
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Journal
The American Historical Review
Book Title
Series
Digital Collection
Finding Aid URL
Use and Reproduction
Archival Collection
PubMed ID
ISSN
0002-8762
1937-5239
1937-5239