Soviet Hippie Collection

The Soviet Hippie Collection is made up of a series of collections and individual items organized by provenance—all from former hippies throughout the Soviet Union. The materials are primarily from the 1960s to 1970s and include documents, photographs, cartwork, textiles, compact discs, and journals. The collection demonstrates how hippies collaborated with underground artists on anti-establishment exhibitions, were active in ecumenical and orthodox reform movements, and sometimes engaged in political dissent. The hippies, while extreme outliers of the system, are emblematic of many larger trends that prevailed during the latter half of the Cold War period.

This collection addresses a history that is absolutely crucial in understanding how late-socialist life functioned, why the Soviet system collapsed, and how post-socialist society emerged.

The cataloging and digitization of this collection was made possible by the support of Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.