John Bushnell – författare

This book explores the history of Russian peasant bride theft - abduction, capture - from the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus in the late tenth century to the very early twentieth century. It argues that bride theft in eighteenth and nineteenth century Russia was practised in large part by, but not exclusively by, Old Believers, the schismatics who rejected the Church reforms of the mid-seventeenth century and shunned contact with the Orthodox Church; and that the point of bride theft, where the bride was often a willing party, often married secretly at night by an Orthodox priest acting illegally, was to absolve the bride and her parents of the responsibility for engaging in a formal Orthodox ritual which Old Believers regarded as sinful. The book also considers how bride theft originated much earlier in Russia and was a continuing tradition in some places, and how all this fitted into the Russian peasant economy. Throughout the book provides rich details of particular bride theft cases, of Russian peasant life, and of Russian folklore, in particular bridal laments.

This book explores the history of Russian peasant bride theft - abduction, capture - from the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus in the late tenth century to the very early twentieth century. It argues that bride theft in eighteenth and nineteenth century Russia was practised in large part by, but not exclusively by, Old Believers, the schismatics who rejected the Church reforms of the mid-seventeenth century and shunned contact with the Orthodox Church; and that the point of bride theft, where the bride was often a willing party, often married secretly at night by an Orthodox priest acting illegally, was to absolve the bride and her parents of the responsibility for engaging in a formal Orthodox ritual which Old Believers regarded as sinful. The book also considers how bride theft originated much earlier in Russia and was a continuing tradition in some places, and how all this fitted into the Russian peasant economy. Throughout the book provides rich details of particular bride theft cases, of Russian peasant life, and of Russian folklore, in particular bridal laments.

First Published in 1990, Moscow Graffiti is a unique and unprecedented look at the graffiti that began to appear for the first time on the walls of Moscow and other Soviet cities in the late 1970s. John Bushnell first traces the social and cultural changes that fostered the emergence of a multifaceted Soviet subculture and the appearance of graffiti. He explains the common graffiti argot of Russian slang, English, and pictographs, and then examines the disparate groups that produced it-adolescent gangs, heavy metal fans, pacifists, punks, hippies, and even the fans of a popular Soviet novel (Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita). Through graffiti these conflicting and alienated groups produce an explicit cultural alternative to the official culture they disdain.

Fully illustrated with over eighty drawings and photos, Moscow Graffiti is a unique look at an underexplored area of Soviet society. The book will prove fascinating reading to all those interested in Soviet society, history, and popular culture.