Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 8-2018 Politics and Society in Federation Era Russia: Power Elites, Music and the Shaping and Manipulation of Culture and Identity Hayley Ream Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, and the Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ream, Hayley, "Politics and Society in Federation Era Russia: Power Elites, Music and the Shaping and Manipulation of Culture and Identity" (2018). Honors Theses. 2260. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/2260 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Chapter 1 Introduction "Musical Innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them.” Plato "It is through music that the powerful myth of Russia’s national character can best be understood. Russian art and music, like Russia itself, has always been tinged or tainted with an air of alterity – sensed, exploited, bemoaned, reveled in, traded on, and defended against both from within; and from without.” Richard Taruskin This thesis will provide unique analysis and evaluation that will seek to demonstrate that contemporary Russian music viewed in a political context is important not only for what it is and what it can do, but also for what it can be used to do.