About the book: 2020 / A new fundamental study by the famous historian of Stalinist culture Evgeny Dobrenko is devoted to one of the least studied periods of Soviet history - late Stalinism. Examining the relationship between post-war Soviet cultural policy and political culture, the book is a cultural and intellectual history of the era, told through an analysis of the cultural texts it produced - be it literature, film, theatre, music, painting, architecture or popular culture. Turning to the main cultural and political milestones of the post-war era, the author shows how the policies of Stalinism actually followed the main aesthetic modes, conventions and paths of socialist realism. This connection made it possible to create a new Soviet nation, the main phobias, traumas, the image of the enemy, the culture of resentment and the entire mental profile of which, finally taking shape after the war and surviving not only the Stalinist, but also the Soviet era, determined the face of today's Russia. Evgeniy Dobrenko – philologist, cultural historian, professor at the University of Sheffield (UK).