Flowers Through Concrete

Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland examines the underground world of Soviet hippies during the final decades of the Soviet Union. The book investigates how young people adopted elements of Western counterculture and adjusted them to fit their late socialist environment.

Functioning as an unusual history of late Soviet society and a case study of transnational youth cultures, the text explores the lives and survival of movement participants. It recounts their experiences facing police harassment, forced haircuts by civilian guards, and psychiatric confinement.

Winner of the Svetlana Boym Best Book in Cultural Studies award from AATSEEL, the study presents an argument regarding the subculture's symbiotic relationship with the socialist system.