Subculture of dudes. A complete overview of the deceased subculture

19.07.2013 0 27090

The name “hip” became a household word thanks to the famous feuilleton of the same name by D. Belyaev, published in the magazine “Crocodile” under the heading “Types that are a thing of the past.”

The etymology of the nickname term “hip” indicates its connection with the concept of style.

“To style” originally meant to perform (music, dance) in someone else’s style. A different style began to appear in clothing, in appearance, in communication and behavior.

Let’s try to describe the “classic” dude and compare the textbook-famous image with its Siberian variation.

Along the avenue, like a mannequin,
In the evening, a striking gentleman wanders around.
Everything will be given to you by a loafer and a gentleman
For a colorful stylish tie
and for rubber.

Specific clothing was the main characteristic of dudes. A relatively small layer of people in unusual clothes could not help but stand out against the general background of modestly standardly dressed citizens.

It should be noted that the appearance of the dudes changed: from the caricature dressed in wide-baggy clothes of unimaginable colors in the second half of the 1940s - through the pipe trousers of the 1950s - to the elegance of the "shtatniks" (dressed in branded American things) and the refusal to obvious shocking during the years of Khrushchev’s “thaw”. According to the KGB, in Moscow in the late 1950s it was already difficult to distinguish dudes from foreigners, since loudness and flashiness had gone from the image, and the ability to dress stylishly had come.

In the provinces, the evolution of the image is less pronounced. Even the metropolitan dudes experienced enormous difficulties in acquiring things that created the desired image, especially branded ones. On the Siberian periphery, there was no such layer of “golden youth” and black marketeers in those years; fashion arrived here several years late. For the bulk of Siberian dudes, the problem of purchasing imported clothing was practically insoluble.

“Hipsters are mainly students, as the more educated part of the population, mainly from wealthy families. Since clothing - the main difference - was quite expensive. It was obtained from those who had been abroad. Partially imported clothes were obtained in ports. In our (Krasnoyarsk - S.R.) region - this is Igarka, where foreign ships came for timber. Student construction teams set out for loading.

They brought cigarettes, colored shirts, plaid jackets. But this, so to speak, is the elite of the movement... The rest of the population made do with Soviet consumer goods and flea markets.”

In addition, branded clothing with labels was not defiantly alternative, as required by the image of a dude, most of whom had not reached the level of a “staff worker.” Therefore, other sources of means of self-expression were required. One of possible options there was an appeal to private tailors and shoemakers. The activities of private artisans were under the close attention of many authorities, and in the early sixties, according to the plans of the leadership of the party and the country, they should have come to nothing.

Sewing at home for commercial purposes was equated to speculation and threatened with imprisonment from 5 to 10 years (Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR)4. It was all the more risky to sheathe dudes. But the underground production of clothes and shoes was a very profitable business for them. Using Siberian material, we were able to record facts of illegal appeal of dudes to masters of custom tailoring.

“In 1951, I moved to Krasnoyarsk, where I worked in an atelier... Among the orders there were those that did not quite correspond to the model of a decent citizen. One of these customers was a girl, her name was Renata E. She appeared to be either a stylish girl, or, as they usually do, a chick. She comes from a wealthy family, her father is a doctor, her mother is an engineer, but apparently she lacked extreme sports or something? Our acquaintance was arranged by a woman who worked with me. Renata came to her with a request to sew outfits, she refused for fear that everything would be found out and she might be arrested.

Sewing stylish items was prohibited, because the style did not correspond to our structure. I, being a provincial girl, agreed, since the work offered a large salary for that time. If an ordinary suit cost about 80-100 rubles, then a style order cost more than a hundred rubles, and the profit went to the master. I was engaged in tailoring underground, sewing for Renate at my home.”

However, the most common source for creating the proper image of a dude, especially in the provinces, was the famous “samostrok”. With one’s own hand or with the help of a home-grown “specialist”, from scrap materials or alterations from “sovparshiv”, at the cost of incredible efforts, the desired features of a stylish image were created.

“I like to remember about younger brother, he was fashionable, or, as they used to say, “fashionable”: he sewed in his trousers and then, to put them on, he soaped his legs... But dad was strict in this regard, and Petya brought his things to the condition in which they were there from the beginning"; “We started looking for such (tight - SR.) trousers, then we realized that we had to sew them ourselves. We started looking for bright shirts, which was very difficult, and in fact there were only one, two such shirts, and the number was gone...”

The dudes also wore shoes that were not “like everyone else.” For the manufacture of boots weighing up to 2.5 kg, according to Alexei Kozlov, the capital's dudes paid 500 rubles. It’s not a fact that there were the right shoemakers, and few could pay a lot of money for “semolina porridge,” as these boots were figuratively called for their light-colored, porous soles. Therefore, dudes had to show incredible ingenuity in attaching a corrugated platform or multi-layer rubber to ordinary Soviet-made shoes.

The typical dude remained in the mass consciousness, including Siberians, dressed in short, tapered pipe trousers, the width of which at the bottom was 21-22 cm (but some especially stylish ones brought it up to 18 cm) and bright shirts. On the feet - low shoes with thick white and yellow rubber soles or shoes with tapered toes.

Respondents also name checkered jackets, brimmed hats, and dark glasses as stylish accessories. But there were few happy owners of these attributes in Siberia. Mention of ties of the “fire in the jungle” type (with images of monkeys, palm trees and other exotic things) was found only once, in the memoirs of an “elite” dude. And his fellow countrymen were content mainly with thin “herring” and “lace” ties, often made independently.

Stylish dressed girls were found mainly in capital cities. The German magazine Der Spiegel wrote in 1962: “Just a few years ago, a Russian girl of adulthood looked like this: a crown of braids on her head, a waist-length dress and heavy shoes. Whether in a ballroom or at a May Day demonstration... This ideal is no longer unquestionable...

The young ladies who populate Moscow cafes in the evenings are almost no different in the cut of their dresses and hairstyles from the girls of their age in Berlin, Paris and Rome.”8 In the province on bold experiments Few representatives of the fair sex decided on their appearance. Mostly the most desperate girlfriends of stylish guys. In relation to girls, the norms of public morality were more severe. It was enough to wear a skirt just above the knee, hug your hips, and use makeup to be considered a dude.

The former stylish girl recalls: “It was hard with my mother - an unloved daughter and a lot of bickering and complaints about each other - I couldn’t dress or look really good. I finished tenth grade in Moscow - I ran away from my parents to Big city. She studied in the same class with Marianna Vertinskaya. She sewed clothes herself and bought them “through connections.” I was especially faced with what to wear in Moscow. I took the boots that I brought with me from Siberia, cut off the shanks from them, and 17 cm was enough for me to wear a miniskirt. You can't sit down or get on the bus. But there is something to remember. They stopped wearing bras then.” It is significant that in hometown she did not find freedom for self-expression and in search of beautiful life escaped from Stalinsk (now Novokuznetsk), Kemerovo region, to Moscow.

Hey boy, boy!

He screwed up the Danish cook.

I couldn't figure it out:

Is he a lady or a boy!

The dude's alternative hairstyle also made him stand out from the crowd. While officially accepted men's haircuts were considered “boxing” and “half-boxing” with a shaved head, dudes grew long hair“like Tarzan,” they put a “cock” on the head, greasing and whipping it, and, for greater persuasiveness, fixing it with sugar syrup.

From the facial hair, “bastards” mustaches were released or glued on. Women's version stylish hairstyle there was “Babette” - high-mounted varnished hair, like the French sex symbol Brigitte Bardot in the film “Babette Goes to War”.

Classic “cocas” on Siberian material are quite rare, and we were not able to find any mention of “bastards” at all. Basically, local dudes limited themselves to growing their hair “above the established standard” and combing their forelocks. The most common haircut is called “Canadian”.

As stylish female options In addition to the “babette” hairstyle, bouffant hairstyles are also mentioned, short haircuts under the French and with bangs, “crowns of the world”... that is, almost everything that was an alternative to traditional braids.

He was Grisha, but now

Named Harry...

Every day at the usual time

Harry - on the boulevard.

In every major city, the dudes had special gathering places. They called them “Brody” (from “Broadway”): Gorky Street and Pushkin Square in Moscow, Nevsky Prospekt in Leningrad, Kuibyshevskaya Street in Samara, Deribasovskaya in Odessa. Siberia also had its own Brody. For example, in Krasnoyarsk - on Mira Avenue (former Stalin Avenue), from Dzerzhinsky Street (!) to Perenson Street.

It is significant that the central streets and squares of cities became Brody, which emphasized the demonstrative nature of involvement in the dude community. But most often the places where style was demonstrated in the provinces were parks and dance floors.

The hipster turns to the record store salesman: “I asked you for boogie-woogie, and you gave me Bach fugues!”

Special musical and dance preferences are also considered a characteristic feature of styling. The dudes listened to “non-Soviet” jazz and saxophonic music. Since jazz is a melodic style based on improvisation, it “became something more than music, it acquired the features of ideology, or rather, anti-ideology.”

Their idols were Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman. It was from the dudes that the tradition of underground sound recording began, popularly called “music on bones,” “music on ribs,” or “my grandmother’s skeleton.” Such records were illegally cut into X-rays by workers at recording studios or by craftsmen at home. The quality of the recordings was, as a rule, terrible, and they were much more expensive than the real ones.

Later, reel-to-reel tape recorders began to appear, but in Siberian cities even in the 1960s they were very rare, so magnetic recordings were not a significant channel for the penetration of “style” music. Much more often in our archive of memories we find information about listening to music programs from foreign radio stations. In general, at the provincial level, the connection between dudes and jazz turned out to be less close than in the classical version of ideas about this subculture.

But on the dance floors, the Siberian dudes were, perhaps, not inferior to their metropolitan counterparts, despite the vigilant control of the organizers of the mass events. cultural events. The approved programs of dance evenings included waltzes, foxtrots, and polkas. The rules of the routine strictly stated: “At dance evenings it is not allowed... to dance in any kind of “styles” and distort the existing edition of dances... to violate the established position of the partners’ hands when performing dances. Persons who violate these rules are removed from... the dances.”

But despite all the dire warnings and measures to suppress “alien” dance steps, it turned out to be impossible to eradicate them. The most popular dude dances were boogie-woogie and rock and roll. The dudes themselves recall: “And how we danced rock and roll, Charleston, twist, waltz, tango in the club on Saturdays! In general, it was great!” Although they admit: “They danced boogie-woogie, later twist... They didn’t know the correct movements, they danced as best they could.”

The public's reaction was mixed... “Before that we danced waltzes, polkas, krakowiaks and others, but now this! They (the dudes - R.S.) danced very unusually. Their movements were very interesting. We couldn’t do that, and we didn’t strive to do that. For us it was all just cheesy.

We danced in a simple, modest way.” The dudes, in the language of one of our informants, “kicked off at the dances, danced not our way... All the boys were like boys, and they stood out against the general background as “white crows.” So we raised them, we even beat them at dances.”

Fashionable dude,
I'm hungry myself,
tight pants,
non-Russian himself!

The dudes also had their own slang - a special language of communication. Partially, everyday words were remade in a foreign manner (father - phaser, look - lyuk, drink - drink, money - manyushki, walk - throw break, boots - shoes), as well as proper names (Fedya-Fred, Misha-Michael, Grisha -Harry). But the stock of foreign words was clearly not enough, so slang words were also used. The dudes called themselves “dudes” and “dudes”, their apartments for parties were “huts”, “promoting” meant escaping from a gentleman, etc.

In Siberian material, Americanisms are less common, and other slang words were used quite actively, going far beyond the comparatively narrow circle dudes and spreading mainly among young people.

There, admiring himself, he stood up, gazing at the girls. He hasn’t read a book for a long time, and hasn’t been to museums.
Among the behavioral differences of the classic image of dudes, impressiveness, articulate walking along the Broad, purring jazz melodies, pronouncing words with a special intonation (nasally, “on the nose”), and even a special look are usually dominant.

In our archive of memories, the listed signs, except for a special gait, are practically not found. Perhaps they are hiding behind more general characteristics, such as cheeky behavior, rudeness, deliberately attracting increased attention to oneself.

“In my opinion, they differed from ordinary working people in their loudness. I can also note their attitude towards others: they behaved dismissively, sneezed at everyone, they saw only themselves. And they received the same attitude from the people”; “I didn’t like such young people, because I thought their clothing style was too vulgar and not at all attractive, and their cheeky, boorish behavior”;

“I didn’t treat the dudes very well, because they stood out from the general mass of people: they had polos and hats. I didn’t envy them; on the contrary, I was happy for people who achieved something in this life. But they felt special, I thought so.”

I won't fall under the dude!

Hipsters are considered the harbingers or pioneers of the “sexual revolution” in the country. Perhaps there was some frivolity in relations between representatives of the opposite sexes. But, firstly, it was rather the “secret” that became more obvious. And, secondly, ideas about the debauchery of local dudes are, to say the least, exaggerated. For Soviet citizens brought up in the spirit of chastity, even hugs on the streets seemed indecent, but the dudes, according to ordinary people, “had freedom in behavior, relaxedness, young people allowed free love - kisses on the streets, hugs.”

The collective image of a dude turned out to be very conventional. On the one hand, there was a very thin layer of “elite”, especially in the provinces, equipped in the latest fashion, and on the other hand, there were a lot of imitators operating using the “remake-remake” method. Therefore, the range of style “portraits” is amazingly wide: from dandyism close to the level of “staff members” - to inept handicraft copying of vaguely imagined attributes:

“At that time I considered myself a dude. Since 1957, he dressed only in the latest youth fashion. In the atelier they sewed me tight trousers with a 6 cm welt, shirts and jackets were brought from the GDR, Czechoslovakian shoes, ties with exotic designs, sometimes with naked women, from Italy. All things were acquired in various ways: through connections, at a flea market, for exchange, orders were placed for the lucky ones leaving overseas... And what kind of music we had! After Khrushchev's warming, military 4-track tape recorders appeared - and this is foreign music... In 1961, I purchased a MAG-56 tape recorder for 370 rubles, 4-track, with automatic track switching, three-speed, former “military eavesdropper” , with tape for two hours of continuous recording. It happened that I was looking for a cracker lying around in the nightstand. And I had to sit in the Leningrad “Astoria”... and in the Moscow mirror “Prague”.

Yes, I was a dude, at least we thought so, at least we tried to be like them. It all started when someone, and I don’t remember who exactly, went to Tomsk and there he saw a man in tight trousers and a jacket with a bright red shirt. When I came back, I told my friends about it. In general, it was difficult for us to follow the fashion of the dudes, it’s just that we didn’t live close to Tomsk... And in the city a couple of times I talked to them (the dudes - S.R.), of course, they were more fashionable, and we they were envied..."

“At that time there was a fashion for short tight pants, and my older brother Valery decided to make himself one of these from the suit that they bought him for school. He sewed them in as best he could, shortened them and ironed them. I tried to put it on, but it didn’t work. He called me, and the two of us somehow pulled these trousers on him. Valera walked around, looked and was very pleased. The two of them also took off their trousers. My parents saw the “modernized” trousers when we were already getting ready for school on September 1st. It was already too late to do anything. The brother came home dissatisfied and ripped his trousers. He said that at school his classmates ridiculed him and asked why he was wearing riding breeches and not boots. Due to his inexperience, he sewed in his trousers only from the knees.”

These “hipsters” were so different. But overall, their Siberian counterparts turned out to bear little resemblance to their romanticized and mythologized stereotype. In addition, during the study we encountered a broader interpretation of this term-name. The everyday consciousness of many representatives of the older generation of Siberians did not draw a sharp line between the dudes and representatives of later youth movements.

Often, dudes were called everyone who stands out in some way, “force,” regardless of whether he is dressed in “pipes,” bell-bottoms, or jeans; listens to jazz or rock; dances a twist or shake; a tuft on his head or loose long hair.

In the typical image: “Pipes, checkered trousers, boots with thick soles, hairstyles, greased upright, dancing in style - some kind of boogie-woogie,” a purely attributive assessment prevails: specific pretentious clothing and dancing in style. Special musical interests and pronounced behavioral differences are mentioned much less frequently. A hipster is, first of all, an “upstart”, “one who stands out from the crowd”, a “dude”, “not like all normal guys”, less often - a “player of life”.

History of the subculture

The first dudes appeared in the late 1940s. Their movement became a protest against the stereotypes of Soviet society. Hipsters were distinguished by cynicism of judgment, emphatic apoliticality, and denial of certain norms of public morality of that time. The winners returning from Western Europe brought many so-called “trophy” magazines, jewelry, clothes, and shoes. These items, already out of fashion abroad, became the basis of the protest wardrobe for dudes “of the people.”

The first dudes appeared in the late 1940s

The emergence of the term “hip”

The term was first used in 1949 in the satirical essay by D. G. Belyaev “Hipster”. The text was published in the Krokodil magazine under the heading “Types that are a thing of the past.” The essay described a school evening where an ignorant and vain young man appeared “dressed in a foreign style,” proud of his ridiculous colorful outfit and skills in foreign dances.

The term was first used in 1949

He evokes laughter and disgusted pity from other students. Also featured in the feuilleton is the dude’s friend Momochka, who “looks like she’s flown off the cover of a fashion magazine.” The essay “Hipster” and the article about rootless cosmopolitans published in the same issue signaled the start of a campaign against Western influence. There is an opinion that the term “stylaga” itself came from musical language: for jazz performers, the term “stilaga” meant “copy someone else’s playing style.” There was an expression “to play dude” - that is, to play in an imitative manner.

Society's attitude towards subculture

Since the 50s, dudes have been constantly persecuted

Since the 50s, dudes have been constantly persecuted. Representatives of the subculture were regularly ridiculed in the press and worked at Komsomol meetings, and squads of vigilantes pursued them on the streets. Hipsters' clothes were damaged and their hair was cut off. They were forcibly taken to the police and photographed for incriminating articles. Brief “lights” in relation to the subculture of dudes were the exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso in 1956, the visit of Christian Dior to Moscow with models in 1959 and, first of all, the festival of youth and students in 1957. At these moments the persecution subsided, but later began again.

The fading of the dude movement

The dudes movement practically died out by the mid-1960s

The dudes movement practically died out by the mid-1960s. Some researchers believe that representatives of the subculture of the early 60s can no longer be classified as dudes. Despite the disappearance of the subculture, fashionistas continued to be called dudes for another ten years.

Representatives of the subculture had a specific appearance, special manners of behavior, their own slang and musical preferences. In many ways, the preferences of the dudes were shaped by “trophy” films - “A Soldier’s Fate in America”, “Sun Valley Serenade”, “Tarzan”, “The Girl of My Dreams”, “George from Dinky Jazz”, as well as films with Dinah Durbin.

Cloth

The first dudes wore baggy double-breasted jackets in colorful colors

The first dudes wore baggy double-breasted jackets of colorful colors, wide-brimmed hats, bright socks peeking out from under their trousers, colored silk or Hawaiian shirts, sweaters with deer, pointed boots on high soles, ties with dragons, monkeys, roosters.

Later, the attire of representatives of the subculture became more elegant: pipe trousers 22 cm wide - as opposed to the Soviet 32 ​​cm, jeans, cane umbrellas, narrow herring ties.

By the 60s, in honor of following American fashion, dudes began to call themselves “staff workers.” By that time, formal raincoats with a top button, ratin coats in the English style, pure wool suits, wide gray jackets with a handkerchief in the pocket, tailor-made Stetson hats, American soldier boots and shoes with perforated toes were popular among representatives of the movement.

The men's wardrobe became the quintessence of the protest movement - stylish girls did not have their own style. They copied styles from Baltic or socialist fashion magazines: they wore fluffy and tight skirts, trousers, bright blouses with floral prints, and shoes with long toes.

Wealthy dudes bought clothes from black marketeers or visiting foreigners

Wealthy dudes bought clothes from black marketeers or visiting foreigners, and also ordered clothes made from Western fabrics purchased in thrift stores. Hipsters from poor families often sewed raincoats and trousers from canvas, glued so-called “semolina porridge” onto their shoes - soles made of rubber or micropork, which were then corrugated on the sides, etc.

Representatives of the subculture held special “luxury items” in high esteem - foreign pens, cigarette cases and lighters, as well as American playing cards with girls in Pin-up style.

Hair and makeup

Hipsters of the 50s wore combed and greased “cocks” on their foreheads, as well as a thin “bastard” mustache.

Hipster girls used more cosmetics than ordinary girls soviet women. Bright lipstick and thickly lined eyes were welcomed. A fashionable hairstyle was the “crown of peace”, for which the hair was curled and styled around the head, and by the 60s, thanks to the film “Babette Goes to War” with Brigitte Bardot, the combed babette, worn by the main character of the film, became incredibly popular.

Manners

Hipsters had special manners of movement

The dudes had a special manner of movement, which was presented as “extraordinarily cheeky.” The plasticity of the representatives of the subculture was conscious and thoughtful: a high head and a free gait indicated that they belonged to the movement, in addition, it was dictated by costume and dancing. Hipsters from different cities in the evenings walked (“made a heel”) along “Broadway” - usually the main street of the city (Gorky Street in Moscow, Nevsky Prospekt in Leningrad). An important element of such walks was the demonstration of their costumes.

Slang

The special slang dude was formed from English borrowings

The special slang of the dudes consisted of English borrowings, reinterpreted in the Russian way, combined with elements of musical jargon. Also, dudes changed their names to foreign ones that sounded like them.

Jacket (English jacket) - jacket.

Sovparshiv - clothes and shoes made in the Soviet Union or homemade.

Socks are bright socks visible from under the trouser leg.

Taek (English tie) - tie.

Truzer, trauser, trauzers (English trousers) - trousers.

Trench coat (eng. trenchcoat) - raincoat

Hatok (English hat) - hat.

Shoes, shuznya (English shoes) - boots with high soles.

Music

The main attribute of the dudes was the saxophone, which personified the music of free people. The dudes were fond of foreign dances and music - primarily jazz.

In the 1950s, the USSR was separated from almost the entire world by the Iron Curtain. Almost everything associated with the West was banned in the country: clothing, magazines, music, etc. It was at that time that a social phenomenon appeared - a youth subculture called “hipsters.”

(Total 18 photos)

1. Anti-Soviet dudes on Soviet-era propaganda.

Hipsters were distinguished by their deliberate apoliticality, cynicism in their judgments, indifference to the norms of Soviet morality, wore bright, sometimes ridiculous clothes and showed a special interest in Western music and dance. Among these young people there were quite a lot of children of party workers and officials of various ranks.

2. Twist on cardboard: take care of the shoes.

3. The podium is not a hindrance to dancing.

The subculture got its name from the word “stylish,” and they really had their own style. Young men usually wore tight trousers, jackets with broad shoulders, Hawaiian shirts, ties of loud colors and cane umbrellas. In footwear, boots with thick rubber soles were considered the most chic.

4. Stylish look- our everything.

Girls wore tight-fitting American-style dresses, tight knee-length skirts and trouser suits.

5. Almost American fashionistas.

The dudes’ hairstyles were also unusual: the guys had a “cock” hairstyle, fluffing up the hair on their heads, and the girls wore high hairstyles or curled their strands, laying them around their heads. Bright red lipstick was mandatory in the girls' makeup, which caused a sharply negative reaction among conscious members of the public.

6. Conscious Soviet youth at the parade...

The appearance, values ​​and behavior of the dudes were in complete dissonance with the norms of Soviet morality, so the dudes were sometimes subjected to ridicule and open negativity from ordinary people.

7. ...and the unconscious one is at the dance.

And although the dudes subculture ran counter to communist ideology, the motives of these young people, as a rule, were far from politics. It was more of an escapist subculture than a group of cultural protesters: the dudes essentially created their own colorful world under an egalitarian regime with many restrictions.

8. These young people had nothing in common with dudes.

The behavior of the dudes was not so much a protest as a way of self-expression. The generation of post-war youth no longer wanted to fight for communist ideals; young people wanted freedom.

9. Pioneers in the ranks. They are not dudes yet.

The system and society dictated their own rules: “be like everyone else,” “do like everyone else.” There were practically no opportunities left to express one's own individuality. Unless, of course, you were going to (or couldn’t) set labor records.

10. Covers of Western magazines are the object of desire of all dudes.

Since the dudes were, as a rule, representatives of the golden youth, they had free access to Western magazines, music and films. And this is understandable: high-ranking parents were ready to do anything for their beloved children, even lift the forbidden curtain.

11. Most stylish guys Moscow.

Young people not only listened to Western music and danced “forbidden” dances, young people imitated Western musicians in everything. For example, many stylish guys did their hair in the style of Johnny Weissmuller, who starred in a series of films about Tarzan.

12. Such trousers were worn by conscientious Soviet citizens; the “stylish” trousers were sewn into narrow pipes.

Another trick of the dudes is to demonstratively chew chewing gum, as James Cagney did in his films. Since it was very difficult to get chewing gum, it was replaced with a piece of paraffin.

13. Baby plates from x-rays.

Many of the dudes were creative individuals and made their own clothes and accessories. Some with my own hands created musical instruments or converted acoustic guitars into electric ones for jazz performance. And they also recorded records with their favorite music themselves - on old X-rays.

14. This is what the dudes were striving for.

In addition to the style of clothing and hairstyles, music was very important in the subculture of dudes. The Hipsters mostly listened to jazz and swing, but their favorite song was “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” from the soundtrack to the movie Sun Valley Serenade.

15. Cartoons from Soviet magazines: asocial element.

Despite the fact that the dudes subculture was extremely provocative, these unusual youth did not participate in any activities that were officially prohibited by law, and no one forbade dressing up and meeting in interest groups. To solve this problem, the authorities began to try to present dudes as asocial, “alien to human society” elements.

16. Cartoons from Soviet magazines: dudes - Western agents.

Suffice it to recall the widely circulated slogan “Today you play jazz, and tomorrow you will sell your homeland.” Various “revelatory” articles and posters were also published.

17. Revelatory article in a Soviet newspaper.

In the sixties (during the Thaw), when the Soviet Union began to be more tolerant of various subcultures, styling gradually disappeared. Many former dudes even became successful directors, artists and musicians.

18. Dancing-dancing won!

Hipsters - in the USSR, this ironic neologism was used to describe representatives of the post-war youth subculture, the standard for which was the American way of life, alien to Soviet ideology. But still, they could not be called either enemies of the Motherland or traitors: firstly, they were emphatically apolitical, and secondly, the birth of the dudes subculture was not a step “towards”, but an escape “from”: a deliberately ostentatious admiration for America was a challenge to imposed stereotypes, a protest against uniformity in lifestyle, behavior, clothing and even music.

It was easy to recognize the dude in the crowd: he looked like a parrot in a flock of sparrows. And this was also a kind of protest against mass depersonalization: defiantly bright clothes of an absurd cut made the dudes stand out among equally dressed guys and girls. The dude was visible from afar: an elongated jacket with stripes or a large check on cotton shoulder pads, a narrow “herring” tie, tapered “pipe” trousers and boots on a white platform - “semolina porridge” - unmistakably betrayed a “shtatnik” (that’s what the first dudes were called Soviet Union; the name comes from the word “States”, which was worshiped by representatives of this subculture).

Reasons for the appearance of dudes in the USSR

There were several of them. The main one is the intensification of international contacts of the Soviet Union after the Great Patriotic War. After defeating Nazi Germany The USSR began to actively develop and strengthen international connections. Accordingly, the number of diplomatic workers living abroad with their families has increased. The difference between Soviet realities and the life of the “decaying West” was more than obvious, and the comparison at that time was clearly not in favor of the post-war Soviet Union, which had just begun to restore peaceful life after war devastation.

In addition, the government has set a task for scientists, engineers and inventors to as soon as possible not only restore industrial enterprises destroyed by the war, but also create new technologies. At the same time, they were not created from scratch, but on the basis of already existing Western developments, which also intensified business trips to non-CIS countries.

The third reason for the emergence of a youth subculture that ran counter to Soviet ideology was the huge number of trophies brought by soldiers from the fronts of World War II. It was not only clothes and household items, but also many films telling about the beautiful life abroad. For Soviet youth, experiencing a lack of food and beautiful things in the post-war years, these films personified an earthly paradise. And, naturally, they created a desire to imitate the heroes of colorful films. The cult films of Soviet dudes were such films as “Serenade of the Sun Valley”, “The Girl of My Dreams”, “George from Dinky Jazz”, “A Soldier’s Fate in America”, “Tarzan”, musical films with the participation of the Canadian actress and singer Deanna Durbin.

Among the trophies were fashion magazines. Obsolete in the West, these wardrobe items became the basis of the “corporate” style of Soviet “shtatniks”.

Foreign music also made its contribution to the creation of the dude subculture. Records with fashionable jazz compositions were also part of the spoils of war, which made jazz incredibly popular in the Soviet Union. Along with new music, previously unknown Western dances came to the USSR. For example, the Soviet people saw boogie-woogie for the first time during a meeting with American soldiers on the Elbe. The “unhinged” reckless dance to infectious jazz rhythms - the complete opposite of classic tango and waltz - simply could not help but attract the attention of the dude. It is not surprising that very soon it became a cult for them.

How did the term “hipster” come about?

It is noteworthy that the representatives of this subculture themselves did not call themselves anything. True, over time, they nevertheless came up with a term to denote their credo: “staff members” - that is, fans of the United States. That’s what they were called until 1949, when a caustic feuilleton called “Hipster” appeared in the March issue of “Crocodile” magazine under the heading “Types that are a thing of the past.” Its author D. Belyaev portrayed the “staff member” as a stupid, ignorant and vain young man, dressed in a colorful outfit. At a student party where this ridiculous guy came, his appearance aroused pity with a tinge of disgust. The negative image in the feuilleton turned out to be so juicy, and the Krokodil magazine was so popular that the term “hip” instantly became popular among the people, replacing the self-designation “shtatnik”. From that time until the mid-60s, representatives of this youth subculture were called nothing less than dudes.

Fashion dudes

Despite all the copying of the Western way of life, he still could not be called blind: domestic realities made their own adjustments. For example, the wardrobe of the first “staff members” against the backdrop of Soviet fashion of the 40s was quite a caricature: bright wide pants, a spacious jacket of a baggy cut, eye-catching socks and a wide-brimmed hat - this whole “outfit” was more reminiscent of a clown costume than the clothes of a Western dandy . The famous bright orange tie, popularly called “fire in the jungle,” added a resemblance to the “carpet.” A frequent, although optional, attribute of the first dudes were dark glasses.

From shocking to elegance

Over time, the appearance of Soviet dudes changed significantly. Wide trousers were replaced with pipe trousers, the jacket decreased in size, at the same time increasing in the shoulders, and became more elegant. The “screaming” tie was replaced by a narrow “herring” tie with a microscopic knot. A thick knitted sweater with a “northern” pattern, inspired by American films, appeared in the dudes’ winter wardrobe (the heroes of the films “The Girl of My Dreams” and “Sun Valley Serenade” walked around in such sweaters). Bright and colorful “Hawaiian” shirts became my favorite summer clothing.

Low shoes with “semolina porridge” - a thick rubber sole - have become a cult shoe among dudes. white. As stylish accessories an umbrella-cane, trophy pens, cigarette cases and lighters were used.

Well, hairstyle is a separate story and a special pride of every self-respecting dude. The rest of the “outfit” literally paled in front of the tall, greased cook “a la Presley.” It was because of this cook that the dude could be noticed from afar even in the thickest crowd, without yet seeing his suit.

It was much easier for girls who considered themselves dudes. It was enough for them to apply bright makeup, put your hair in the so-called “crown of the world” (curls around the head) and put on tight skirt, tight around the hips.

Musical preferences

At the dawn of the Soviet youth subculture, traditional American jazz was a cult favorite among dudes, and Glenn Miller’s world hits from the movie “Sun Valley Serenade” were his favorite compositions. The composition “Train to Chattanooga”, popularly nicknamed “Chucha”, became a kind of anthem of Soviet dudes:

Pardon me, boy

Is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Track twenty nine

Boy, you can give me a shine

The image of a train departing for the unknown Chattanooga has become a kind of symbol, reflecting a burning desire to at least mentally leave for the coveted America.

Compositions by Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Eddie Rosner and other jazz music of the 40s and 50s were no less popular among the first Soviet dudes.

My favorite dance was the American Boogie-Woogie. Moreover, the Soviet dudes’ interpretation of it was very unique. Without sufficient knowledge in this area, they managed to invent their own dance steps, which is why the number of interpretations of boogie-woogie was almost endless. Then, when rock and roll appeared later, the creative “staff” were happy to improvise there too - fortunately, the specifics of the genre allowed a free interpretation of both the music itself and the dance.

"Rock on the Bones" or "My Grandma's Skeleton"

Don’t be alarmed, this term has nothing to do with dancing in a cemetery – this was the name given to homemade recordings of fashionable music. Due to the shortage of gramophone records with recordings of fashionable foreign performers, dudes learned to record their favorite compositions on x-rays, or, as they also said, “on the ribs.” The quality of such recordings left much to be desired, and with repeated playback, this quality deteriorated even more. So the life of “rock on bones” was short: after several dozen listenings, the music on “my grandmother’s skeleton” was a continuous wheezing, creaking and hissing.

Recording music “on edge” lost its relevance only with the advent of tape recorders. Since that time, Western music has become more accessible, and few people hunted for scarce gramophone records: tape recordings were enough for most.

Young people who closely followed fashion and preferred light jazz music to harsh patriotic chants existed from the first days of the formation of the USSR. But only the dudes received the label of “rootless cosmopolitans.” This is not surprising: the “staff members” found themselves in the very epicenter of the active struggle of Soviet ideologists against “adulation of the West.” It is clear that the dudes, with their overt interest in American and Western European culture, became an excellent and, perhaps, the main target for Komsomol and party functionaries.

The pages of magazines and newspapers are filled with angry “revelatory” articles, cartoons and feuilletons, ridiculing the admiration of the dudes for the West and presenting them not only in an unsightly light, but increasingly as potential enemies. It was in those years that the notorious slogan “Today he plays jazz, and tomorrow he will sell his homeland” appeared. There were also propaganda posters directly declaring war on the dudes:

“The Hipster is Potentially an Enemy

With alien and scanty morals

On the Komsomol front sight dudes;

Let them redo it and give up!”

True, among the representatives of the subculture themselves, all these angry attacks only caused a smile. Firstly, the dudes did not intend to fight with anyone: they were initially pacifists, which also irritated the Komsomol members and communists, whose ideology prescribed a fight against the world bourgeoisie. Secondly, to be honest, the young post-war generation had no other role models except their own heroes of two wars: the Civil and the Great Patriotic War. In this regard, the dude's horizons were much broader. And, to be honest, many Komsomol members, living in cramped material conditions, secretly (obviously it was impossible) envied fashionable and elegant young people and well-groomed girls. They were envious not so much of external attributes as of internal freedom, positivity and healthy “not giving a damn.”

Young people in any regime strive for self-expression, and therefore various trends periodically arise that differ in appearance and worldview from all other social groups. These were the dudes. The years of the Stalin era gave rise to a movement of youth who defended their right to freedom through clothing, words and music. They did not call for regime change, they only wanted to have the right to their individuality in a world of dullness and facelessness. Let's talk about what kind of subculture this is and how the image of a dude differs.

Origin of the subculture

Such a phenomenon as a dude is the result of a number of factors. After the October coup of 1917, the USSR was in international isolation, and only after the Second World War were contacts with foreign countries resumed. This leads to the fact that the country has a layer of people who regularly travel abroad and their children. It was the children of diplomats and trade workers who became the basis of the emerging social group golden youth. They wanted to emphasize their uniqueness, and for this they choose a special Western appearance, music, etc.

Also, the formation of the dude culture is influenced by the growing internal protest of young people against the dullness of life and poverty. This feeling was fueled by trophy items, films, and pieces of music. After many years of deprivation, young people wanted a holiday, brightness, and unusualness. The fashion style of the dudes, their musical tastes, and dancing became a challenge to the regulation of the sphere of private life.

Etymology of the name

Initially, representatives of this subculture called themselves staffers, as they followed the example of the United States of America in everything. But in 1949, the feuilleton “Types that are a thing of the past” appeared in the popular humor magazine “Crocodile.” It described something new social phenomenon- fans of Western culture - as completely alien and harmful to Soviet society, the word “hipsters” first appeared there. The subculture was described as a kind of perverted behavior unworthy of a Soviet person. The bright imagery and causticity of the text attracted the attention of the general public to it, and the word went among the people.

Gradually, the original name “shtatniki” disappeared from the vocabulary of newspapers, people and representatives of the movement themselves. There is a version that the word “hipsters” came from the word “style” as the most important thing that distinguished the young people of this movement from all others. And there is even an assumption that this name came from jazz slang. One way or another, in the early 50s, the new term was firmly attached to this social movement.

Ideology of the movement

A hipster is a person who professes Western principles of freedom of expression. However, attributing a rebellious ideology to this subculture is erroneous. Young people wanted to be allowed to listen to the music they liked and dance as they pleased. This subculture did not have any pro-Western ideology that they tried to attribute to them. But since the United States was officially considered a hostile state, the exaltation of American culture was perceived as In fact, the image of a dude was only a form of defending freedom to one’s own opinion and taste and nothing more. The main pastime of the dudes was walking and the main place for their promenade was Tverskaya Street - “Broadway”.

Fashion and costume dudes

The main feature of dudes is their appearance. The typical image of representatives of this community evolved and changed until the “classic” version was formed. consisted of narrow pipe trousers, a fitted jacket with wide padded shoulders, a bright tie and pointed boots. At the same time, preference was given to bright colors as a way of contrasting the gray everyday life around.

A special subject of concern for every dude is hairstyle. A high bouffant on the head, a coiffure, was a mandatory element of the image. Also, the costume was often supplemented sunglasses, absolutely alien to the Soviet people.

Hipster girls had more costume options. Usually it was a dress with a narrow waist, full skirt and neckline. Later, tight-fitting dresses and skirts appeared that emphasized the figure. A mandatory element of the look were shoes with small curved heels and a small handbag.

Colors were also welcomed, mostly bright ones. The girl had to wear stockings - an item of unprecedented luxury. Therefore, those who could not buy them for themselves were content to draw a seam directly along their bare leg with a chemical pencil. The girls practiced rich makeup with winged eyes and bright lipstick. They wore a hairstyle on their head in the form of a crown or decorated their hair with a ribbon, a bright scarf or a headband. Also, girls always wore quite large jewelry: beads, earrings, clips, bracelets.

Such bright young people, of course, stood out against the general background of dullness and poverty and therefore attracted a lot of attention. Fashionable clothes you could bring it from abroad, which was available only to a few, buy it from black marketeers, or sew it yourself. In this environment, a whole circle of tailors is formed who trim the dudes.

Dude music

This subculture considered American jazz to be its main source of inspiration. Songs from the film “Sun Valley Serenade” performed by the orchestra and compositions by Duke Ellington, Eddie Rosner, Charlie Parker, and Benny Goodman were considered cult works. In the USSR, diplomats and visiting specialists brought recordings of fashionable American music, and this is how Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and other rock and roll musicians appeared in the country.

In those days, a dude was a person well versed in Western art, especially American. It was possible to listen to such music only in apartments or in establishments operating for foreign citizens (for example, the Cocktail Hall in Moscow). The imported recordings were replicated in underground studios, the phonogram was applied to X-ray photographs, which is why it received the nickname “music on bones.”

Gradually, this environment formed a circle of its own musicians playing jazz and rock and roll. For example, the famous jazzman and saxophonist Alexey Kozlov grew up precisely from this culture.

Dancing dudes

This culture was also expressed in its own dances, which went against generally accepted styles; rock and roll, foxtrot, Charleston, and boogie-woogie were fashionable. The hipsters, in their ability to dance, expressed their own attitude to existing regulations and restrictions. You could show off your skills on dance floors, in cafes, and even just on the street, where dudes often staged “demonstration performances.” The dance showed the social challenge that the dudes sent to the Soviet leveling system.

Lexicon

To indicate their peculiarity, the dudes developed their own language, which is based on the adaptation of lexemes in English and jazz slang. It was jargon that served the function of dividing people into friends and foes. In different cities, the dudes' speech had its own words, most often toponyms, but there was a lexical array characteristic of the entire subculture. So, there were words to designate different places: “Broadway” - there was one in every city, “Cock” (“Cocktail Hall”). Many lexemes denoted different types of people: dude, chick, loaves, redneck, phaser. For naming dances and musical styles familiar terms were used: rock and roll, jazz, foxtrot, boogie-woogie. Hipsters have adapted many words from the English language to name wardrobe items: soks, taek, hatok, shuzy, jackettok.

Public censure

In the USSR, the dude is an asocial element; its otherness was seen as a threat to the social order and morality. In the late 40s, this subculture began in the country and became an excellent target for speeches by Komsomol and party activists. There were squads that caught dudes, cut off their coca, and tore their clothes.

In the press, the dudes of the 50s became a favorite object of ridicule and censure. Many cartoons and feuilletons appeared, ridiculing this movement. For the broad masses, these young people were presented as empty copies of Western models; they were denied patriotism, taste, and morality. A huge number of dudes throughout the country were excluded from public organizations, quit their jobs. All this led to the fact that the initially apolitical dudes began to hate the Soviet regime and their protest began to acquire political overtones.

Hipsters of different years

Within this subculture one can see a formal ideological evolution. Hipsters, whose subculture arose in the late 40s in the USSR, were initially a group of people interested in US cinema and music. But in the 50s, the style crystallized and the initial protest movement took shape. By the end of the 50s, many representatives of this subculture already had a negative attitude towards Soviet power and secretly dreamed of leaving the USSR.

Later, the dudes of the 60s lose their sharp opposition to public sentiment. The onset of the thaw led to widespread criticism of the Soviet system during the Stalin period, and therefore the self-expression of the dudes was no longer so vibrant. The persecution of young people stops, and the trend gradually fades away and is replaced by new ones

The meaning of the dude subculture

This social movement left a big mark on Soviet society. Many dudes, who spent years studying American art, costume, and language, in subsequent years became part of the country's creative intelligentsia. Sociologists note that this subculture was the first significant social movement, which marked the beginning of the formation of numerous informal youth associations: hippies, punks, rockers - all of them, in one way or another, grew out of the traditions of the dudes. In addition, this movement encouraged Russian fashion designers to think about creating a youth style, about searching for new forms that would help overcome the same dullness of Soviet people.