Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland

Juliane Fürst takes readers on a journey into the underground world of Soviet hippies, who created a version of Western counterculture, skilfully adapting to the late socialist environment. The book recounts not only a compelling story of shaping and survival against the odds-hippies were harassed by police and civilian guards and confined in psychiatric hospitals by doctors who believed non-conformism was a symptom of schizophrenia. It also advances a surprising argument: despite obvious antagonism the land of hippies and the world of Soviet day-to-day socialism were not incompatible.

Juliane Fürst. Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland / Translated from English by Irina Kosals; Scientific Editor Sofia Timofeeva. - M.: New Literary Observer, 2023.