Post-soviet mass celebration and kul’turnost’: the survey of urban art festival “White nights in Perm - 2012

This paper employs the category “kul’turnost’” for the analysis of post-Soviet urban mass celebrations. Based on empirical data gathered during White Nights in Perm Festival – 2012, the paper delves into how Soviet ideological cliches and stereotypes are manifested in the language of contemporary Russian urban inhabitants. The research setting is the industrial city of Perm with approximately one million citizens. The research is based on a survey, conducted with 429 festival visitors. The results demonstrate that visitors have a complex structure of their opinions including the cliches rooted in Soviet discursive heritage. Applying Bourdieu’s idea of “the objectivisation of the objectifier”, the paper reflects on the influence of survey on the usage of Soviet discursive heritage. The results suggest the necessity to regard Soviet discursive heritage as an influential source of signifiers for articulating opinions in post-Soviet Russia. The paper also questions the usage of Western originated scales as the main tool for festival impact evaluation.