A brief digest about the life of the country, starting from the post-revolutionary years to our time, is presented in a series of books by Leonid Parfyonov “The other day”, compiled based on and in the format of the author’s broadcast of the same name. The project covers the period from 1918 to 2015.
History of creation
Starting the television project “The Day Before 1961-1991,” Parfyonov wanted to capture pictures of the past time in the public consciousness. It was believed that the new Russian being would gradually replace all Soviet life. But it turned out that the life of modern Russia is very deeply rooted and inseparable from the Soviet era, being a continuation and development of many past phenomena.
Therefore, it was decided to try to show the key events in the books, Leonid Parfyonov began work in 2007. The author collected materials using the most modern methods, using the assistance of numerous members of the “Images of Lost Time” community, specially created on the Internet. Help in collecting information and documents was provided by friends, acquaintances and readers of his diary in LiveJournal. Some of the photos for the publication of the book “The Other Day” by Leonid Parfyonov were presented from the personal archive.
The book project turned out to be much wider, it included two volumes describing the events of 2004-2015, the period of which was not in the television program. As the author himself wrote, the dynamics of the reflection of the era were greatly limited by the old newsreel, the book included new topics from filmstrips to Nureyev.
Epoch guide
The presentation of the first volume (1961-1970) took place in 2008, the success was so impressive that Parfyonov began work on the continuation of the series, not only forward in time, but also backward. So, the first volume of Leonid Parfyonov’s book “The Day Before. 1931-1940” was published in 2017.
Each separate volume is dedicated to a 5-10-year historical period in the life of the country, in total 9 books out of 10 so far planned have been published.
The author of the book, Leonid Parfyonov, forms a picture of the described time from various angles, focusing readers on material, domestic and emotional values. For example, the first volume shows the characteristic markers of the Khrushchev thaw - Gagarin's flight, corn - the queen of the fields, humpback Zaporozhets and many others. The reader creates an integrated way of everyday life of the Soviet people of that time. At the same time, there is a section devoted to the shooting of a spontaneous working demonstration in Novocherkassk, which was only whispering quietly in the kitchens.
The description of relatively recent times in Leonid Parfyonov’s book gives a sense of ownership and recognition, whether it is the appearance of shawarma or New Vasyuki in Kalmykia.
Exact selection
It seemed difficult to select the “hottest” events and put them together in a time description? But the books of Leonid Parfyonov are distinguished by the fact that, representing certain aspects of life, he shows their relationship, forming a complex picture of the era.
Talking about the tragedy of the famine of the thirties, which swept the most fertile areas of the country, he shows their connection with industrialization. The confiscated grain in Ukraine and the Volga region, cattle selected in Kazakhstan, which led to millions of deaths, were sold abroad, and machine tools and plants were bought with this money.
The author of the book, Leonid Parfyonov, is distinguished by the ability to select topics that then create a representative sample that accurately shows an integral and consistent picture of the past. Events and facts are highlighted that most fully capture the images of a bygone era.
An important merit of the book is the lack of direct assessments of events: even showing tragic events, the physical destruction of the kulak class, or the mass arrests of the thirties, the authors themselves provide readers with the right to make judgments about the era being described.
Beautiful illustrations
In addition to perfectly selected material, these undoubtedly the best books by Leonid Parfyonov are also distinguished by their magnificent design, which accurately conveys selected moments of life. The illustrations themselves create a kind of comic about the country, in pictures telling about the key moments of history.
Also in the first volume of Leonid Parfyonov’s book there is an illustration of the famous panel “Noble People of the Land of Soviets” created for the World Exhibition in New York, which shows more than forty characters from director Mikhoels and aviator Osipenko to Kazakh poet Dzhambul and a Tajik girl Mamlakat, who set a record cotton picking.