Doctor of History Alexander Barsenkov will talk about perestroika—the historical period in which the 1988 Sotheby’s auction was organized and held in Moscow.
In his lecture, Alexander Barsenkov will analyze the origins and the development of the revolutionary transitions in the USSR that have become known as “perestroika” and are strongly associated with the head of the state—the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the only USSR President, Mikhail Gorbachev. Barsenkov will focus on revealing the implications and the very process of democratization, the evolvement of the “glasnost” policy, and its influence on literature and nonfiction of those turbulent years. He will also discuss how political collisions have impacted Soviet art life and will speak about the changes of public attitudes and historical apperception of people, as well as the complex subject of religious revival in the country. Concluding his talk, he will summarize the hopes and delusions, the results and consequences of perestroika.