To be reviewed in a future issue of Space Policy
Soviet Space Mythologies: Public images, private memories, and the making of cultural identity
By Slava Gerovitch
University of Pittsburgh Press (2015)
ISBN 9780822963639
$27.95 US
Overview: Soviet Space Mythologies explores the history of the Soviet human space program within a political and cultural context, giving particular attention to the two professional groups—space engineers and cosmonauts—who secretly built and publicly represented the program. Drawing on recent scholarship on memory and identity formation, this book shows how both the myths of Soviet official history and privately circulating counter-myths have served as instruments of collective memory and professional identity.
