«New Everyday Life»: Ideological Interpretations of Sexual Relations Based on Russian Literature and Literary Critic of 1920-s

Abstract

The years of the new economic policy, which used to enjoy a reputation as a period of relative tolerance, the author presents as a nightmare age of ideological struggle against normal sexuality. The article is the first part of the lengthy study that devoted to analysis of the relations between Individual and Power in the field of sexual relations in 1920*s. The introduction of NEP brought fears about the future of the revolution, fears expressed primarily in sexual terms. The puritanical drive of the regime, its vision of sexuality as justified only in marriage, and mostly for procreation, was also related in the minds of much of the Soviet populace with the general grayness and hardship of their daily life. The author makes his case by examining a wide array of classical texts from the 1920s, written by well known writers and critics – A.Kollontaj, S.Romanov, S.Malashkin and others.