Stilyagi The work of Lilly Zhornova, 9 B
Stilyagi was a youth subculture that existed from the late 1940 s until the early 1960 s in the Soviet Union. The first stilyagi were from the generation of young adults in their early twenties. Many of the young men returning from the army were heavily influenced by the contact with the foreign countries and modern trends at the time. As a result, many of them wore clothes based on images from abroad.
At the dawn of the phenomenon, the stilyagi look was rather a caricature, inspired by movies from abroad of recent years. By the late fifties, the look had evolved into something more elegant and stylish. Typical stilyagi wore included narrow pants, long jackets, narrow tie, bright color shirts and thick soled shoes.
Usually stilyagi enjoyed popular American music of 1940 s, especially swing and boogie-woogie. Stilyagi developed their own styles of dance originated from boogiewoogie and later also adopted rock-n-roll.
While being a very short-lived and minor phenomenon at the time, the influence of the stilyagi movement on Soviet-Russian culture was tremendous. Many of today's most respected Russian musicians, writers, film editors and other cultural personalities belonged to the movement, or shared its free lifestyle.
