Pizza in Pushkin Square: What Russians Think about Americans and the American Way of Life

Russians are avid consumers of American mass culture--movies, pulp fiction, rock music, jazz, poster art. Astonishingly familiar with made-in- America products, they see the U.S. as a model to be copied and transcended, even though they consider Americans parochial, obtuse, ill-mannered, politically retrograde, consumed with trivialities and profiteering. These findings emerge from Ripp's recent trip to the Soviet Union, distilled in a thoughtful probe that offers an instructive glimpse of the Russian mind as well as surprising insights into the American character. The son of Russian emigres, Ripp ( From Moscow to Main Street ) maintains that Russians remain shackled by their stereotypes of Americans. Black Americans, the U.S. feminist movement, our daily political life are terra incognita on the Soviet mental map of America, and many Russians' passionately held opinions of us rest on misinformation and gossip. (Oct.)