Communism seems to be back these days, if only as pure fashion (though political observers watching Chavezista movements in Latin America might say otherwise). Nothing highlights this more than upcoming ads by French high-end producer Louis Vuitton featuring the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev himself, in its campaign. The classy photo shows Gorbachev riding in a car alongside the Berlin Wall, a luxury Vuitton bag seated next to him. Very nostalgic and very artfully done.
This hip throwback to the other side of the Iron Curtain follows a flood of similar items in recent years. The German comedy “Goodbye, Lenin!” comes to mind, which involves a female hardliner of the East German system falling into a coma just before the Germanys became one, and awakening to find a vastly changed world sometime later. Hilarious and heartfelt results ensue. Of course, the dour, but fascinating question of what might have happened with a Cold War gone hot has also seen much speculation now that the threat itself has faded into history. The upcoming video game “World in Conflict” likely provides the most graphical exploration thus far of the Third World War that could’ve been, or at least its military side. Finally, Iron Curtain life itself is being re-enacted, most strikingly by Berlin’s new Ostel, which offers guests the opportunity to stay in suites furnished in Spartan GDR style.
These nostalgic trends seem to have begun in earnest around 2000, but show no sign of abating. At this rate, look for replicas of the Soviet symbols, propaganda, and other goods that flooded Russian markets in the early ‘90s to be proudly displayed by a sub-culture near you within the next decade, regardless of where you live.
-Namtlieu
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