Kaunis elämä lehdissä DDR-Revue ja Neuvostoliitto

In this article, I demonstrate how the ideal image of beautiful life was built in the cold war era propaganda magazines GDR-Revue and Soviet Union. I examine that vision through rhetoric and representation analysis. The standpoint of the article is taken from Utopian Studies. The ideal image that was built in the GDR-Revue and in the Soviet Union has its tensions, that are analogous in the dialectics of utopia and dystopia. The aim was an equal and classless society, which was supposedly free from exploitation, nevertheless the “real” – or the everyday – of the real socialism was harsh and the totalitarian system was constantly invalidating the utopian dimension. In the article, the focus is at first in the way in which the arts and beautiful environments were manifested in the magazines, and second, in the role of happy children in the construction of glorious socialist state on earth.