De-Stalinization and the House of Culture: Declining State Control over Leisure in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, 1953-1989

De-Stalinization and the House of Culture (1990) looks at the houses of culture – arts centres which in the Stalinist period functioned as agencies of political socialisation – and the changes in their character and functions since Stalin’s death. This book explores the diminishing control of the Communist Party over public leisure from 1953 to the present day, as one aspect of the de-Stalinization and the dismantling of the totalitarian system. It focuses on the changing nature and functio...