Economies Without Libidos
Keti Chukhrov’s book 'Practising the Good' argues that the Soviet Union really did build socialism, and that westerners have been blinded to this because they can’t imagine a society without ‘desire’. How seriously should this be taken?
‘Actually existing socialism’ was never actually socialist. The shabby realities of everyday life in the Soviet Union were at odds with official ideological jargon, undermining the regime’s projected vision of a promised future utopia. Thrilling avant-garde experiments that erupted in the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution in 1917 were never matched by works produced […]