Glamour

   The phenomenon of glamour and celebrity in post-Soviet Russian culture ranges across media forms (film, television, music, art, politics, the Internet, and so forth) with a specific task of constructing new media personalities. Celebrity as a symbol of success has been manipulated by the dominant culture and has been embraced by the masses. In Russia, the process of “celebrification” coincides with the dizzying pace of social change and economic transformation of the past two decades, the latter enabling an unprecedented fascination with glamour and its requisite extravagance.

   In the 1990s, celebrities moved beyond the established paradigms of kinozvezda (film star) and zvezda sovetskogo televideniia (Soviet TV star), straddling various media environments. Such figures also became independent of media moguls (principally, the oligarchs). The post-Soviet sociocultural climate has stimulated circulation of consumerist dreams, fantasies of social promotion, and self-aggrandizement. These cultural functions of glamour are similar to the social and economic expectations of the liberating movement of the late 1980s, known as perestroika. Ironically, the culture of glamour developed in Russia when the democratic vector of perestroika was replaced by the neo-traditionalist and restoration tendencies characteristic of the Putin era. To a large extent, the insidious spread of glamour in Russian culture of the 2000s has emerged as a substitute for the decreasing social mobility within Russian society. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that under Vladimir Putin, the glamour and celebrity phenomenon became the dominant cultural discourse, a type of universal language, and a currency that has been used to address political, social, and cultural issues. In fact, Putin himself has actively promoted his status as a celebrity. He has enjoyed extraordinary popular support, with approval ratings of 70–80 percent. Until the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, he was revered as the savior not only of Russia’s economy, but also of the country’s national pride and its international status. Adoration of the Russian president during his term was not only ideological, but also romantic and quite creative. Russian citizens capitalized on the image of Putin by producing and selling official art and unofficial paraphernalia with Putin’s image; depictions of Putin were featured in Russian popular music, while he also inspired Russian cuisine, sports competitions, and so forth. As a result, he appears as a glamorous, elite icon, whose image dominates the offices of Russian administrators, party leaders, and businesspeople.

   See also Gender.