Anastasia Gordienko

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Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Gordienko, A. (2023).

  Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre

  . The University of Wisconsin Press. doi:0.2307/j.ctv31djqzd
  More info

  Outlaw Music in RussiaThe Rise of an Unlikely GenreAnastasia GordienkoThe first full history of the Russian shansonThe Russian shanson can be heard on radio and television shows, at mass events like political rallies, and even at the Kremlin. Anastasia Gordienko provides the first full history of the shanson, from its tenuous ties to early modern criminals’ and robbers’ folk songs, through its immediate generic predecessors in the Soviet Union, to its current incarnation as the soundtrack for daily life in Russia. It is difficult to firmly define the shanson or its family of song genres, but they all have some connection, whether explicit or implicit, to the criminal underworld or to groups or activities otherwise considered subversive. Traditionally produced by and popular among criminals and other marginalized groups, and often marked by characters and themes valorizing illegal activities, the songs have undergone censorship since the early nineteenth century. Technically legal only since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the shanson is today not only broadly popular but also legitimized by Vladimir Putin’s open endorsement of the genre.With careful research and incisive analysis, Gordienko deftly details the shanson’s history, development, and social meanings. Attempts by imperial rulers, and later by Soviet leaders, to repress the songs and the lifestyles they romanticized not only did little to discourage their popularity but occasionally helped the genre flourish. Gordienko also investigates the shanson as it exists in popular culture today: not divorced from its criminal undertones (or overtones) but celebrated for them. She argues that the shanson expresses fundamental themes of Russian culture, allowing for the articulation of anxieties, hopes, and dissatisfactions that are discouraged or explicitly forbidden otherwise.

Journals/Publications

• Gordiienko, A. (2018). The Paradoxical Role of the Shanson in Putin’s Russia. The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, 45(3), 342-384. doi:10.1163/18763324-20181323

Presentations

• Gordienko, A. (2023, December 2).

  ‘God Is with Us!’ The Russian Invasion of Ukraine in Shanson Songs

  . 2023 ASEEES National Convention. Philadelphia, PA: ASEEES.
• Gordienko, A. (2023, June).

  Volodymyr Zelensky: From Actor to President (And Then—To Captain Ukraine)

  . Young Researchers Conference, Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies. Cuma, Italy: Miami University.
• Gordienko, A. (2023, March 25).

  1)      Decolonizing Russian and Slavic Studies

  . 2023 AZ-AATSEEL Conference. Tucson, AZ: AATSEEL.
• Gordienko, A. (2023, May 19).

  Collective Memory in a Time of Crisis

  . McDonnell Foundation Memory Conference. St. Louis University, MO, May 19, 2023. (invited speaker): McDonnell Foundation.
• Gordienko, A. (2023, May 19).

  Information, Disinformation, and Something in Between

  . McDonnell Foundation Memory Conference. St. Louis University, MO: McDonnell Foundation.
• Gordiienko, A. (2020, February 8). Women of the Shanson: Mothers, Prostitutes, and Lovers. AATSEEL Conference; stream “Gender and Sexuality in the Slavic World”. Omni San Diego Hotel, San Diego, California: The American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL).
• Gordiienko, A. (2020, November, 4). The Shanson (Russian Underworld Song) as an Articulation of National Gender Dynamics: Narrative and Visual Representations of Females in the Shanson. ASEEES Convention. via Zoom,: The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

Reviews

• Gordienko, A. (2024.

  “Soviet Self‐Hatred: The Secret Identities of Postsocialism in Contemporary Russia by Eliot Borenstein. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023. 204 Pp. $22.95. ISBN 978‐1‐5017‐6988‐7.” The Russian Review, January 11, 2024, russ.12610. https://doi.org/10.1111/russ.12610.

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• Gordiienko, A. (2019. Polyudova, Elena. Soviet War Songs in the Context of Russian Culture. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.(pp 332-334).