A new fundamental study by the famous historian of Stalinist culture Yevgeny Dobrenko is devoted to one of the least studied periods of Soviet history - late Stalinism. Considering the connection between post-war Soviet cultural politics and political culture, the book is a cultural and intellectual history of the era, told through an analysis of the cultural texts it produced - be it literature, cinema, theater, music, painting, architecture or mass culture. Addressing the main cultural and political milestones of the post-war era, the author shows how the politics of Stalinism actually followed the main aesthetic modes, conventions and paths of socialist realism. This connection made it possible to create a new Soviet nation, the main phobias, injuries, the image of the enemy, the culture of resentment and the entire mental profile of which, having finally developed after the war and having survived not only the Stalinist, but also the Soviet era, determined the face of today's Russia. Evgeny Dobrenko - philologist, cultural historian, professor at the University of Sheffield (UK).