Brandon Gray Miller

Southern Methodist University, University Honors Program, Assistant Director

Southern Methodist University, Clements Department of History, Adjunct

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Ph.D., Michigan State University (2013). Social and cultural historian of the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia focusing on everyday life, material consumption, and gender. Book Review Editor for REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.

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Korine Amacher

Université de Genève

Tatiana Marchenko

Oleg Korostelev

Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Mikhail Efimov

Elena Nosenko-Stein

Konstantin Kotelnikov

Saint-Petersburg State University

Наталья Выжлецова

Vladimir Milkov

The Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Olga Davydova

Eduard Kolchisky

Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology

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Papers by Brandon Gray Miller

The New Soviet Narkoman: Drugs and Youth in Post-Stalinist Russia

REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, 2015

Soviet officials routinely remarked that the Bolshevik Revolution had destroyed the socioeconomic... more Soviet officials routinely remarked that the Bolshevik Revolution had destroyed the socioeconomic base from which drug use and addiction sprung. Yet, authorities also anxiously reported rising instances of drug use among Soviet youth during the 1950s and 1960s. Through the use of recently declassified Komsomol and police documents from Russian archives, this article examines both the consumptive practices of youth and the measures taken by Soviet authorities to combat this development. Within the liberalizing climate of the Khrushchev-era "Thaw," youth authorities crafted educational and cultural strategies to draw youth away from narcotics. Beginning in the mid-1960s, their emphasis shifted to favor openly punitive strategies as a means of curbing the illegal drug supply and discouraging usage. Contrary to official rhetoric, the consumption of narcotics did not necessarily constitute a political statement or indicate opposition to Soviet power. Instead, drugs could provide an alluring alternative to state-sanctioned leisure practices."

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