On September 18 and 19, Tselinny will host the lecture series Author and Hero in Late Soviet Culture with Ivan Delazari.

The lectures explore how relationships between author, text, and hero were constructed in late Soviet culture, how works began to live independently of their creators, and how the very idea of authorship changed. Through two very different cases — Viktor Tsoi’s songs and Leonid Brezhnev’s book The Virgin Lands — Ivan Delazari will look at Soviet culture through literary theory, media studies, and social anthropology.

The series is part of Nazarbayev University’s research project Suspended Authorship and Narratorial Takeover in Translation, Adaptation, and Documentary Storytelling, supported by the Nazarbayev University Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program 2025–2027.

September 18, 6:00 pm
“Tsoi Is Alive”: Song Culture of “Secondary Orality”

The lecture focuses on Viktor Tsoi’s songwriting and Soviet rock music through the concept of “secondary orality” introduced by media theorist Walter Ong. The discussion will address a cultural condition in which the written word increasingly coexists with radio, television, and other audiovisual forms of communication.

What does a Soviet rock musician have in common with a Kazakh akyn? How do Tsoi’s songs enter popular culture, and what happens to them over time? The lecture will explore authorship, memory, and the ways in which texts, melodies, voices, and gestures continue to live beyond their creators.

September 19, 2:00 pm
“Maybe I Should Read It Too?..” Brezhnev and His (Not Quite His) “The Virgin Lands”

The second lecture focuses on The Virgin Lands, the third part of Leonid Brezhnev’s memoirs, published in millions of copies in the late 1970s and awarded the Lenin Prize for Literature, despite widespread doubts that Brezhnev had written the texts himself.

Participants will look at The Virgin Lands from the perspective of literary genres and discuss how the autobiographical prose of a Soviet leader differs from political memoirs in other traditions. Another focus will be the gap between the official image of power and the way Brezhnev existed in popular culture, including jokes and anecdotes. The lecture will also draw on Alexei Yurchak’s socio-anthropological approach.

Ivan Delazari has taught literary history and theory at the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University since 2022. His research interests include comparative literature, narrative theory, and the intermedial relationship between words and music. He studied and taught in Russia and Hong Kong, completed research training in the United States, and is the author of the book Musical Simulacra.

Both lectures will take place at Tselinny, Atelier educational space on the second floor, 59 Masanchi Street. Admission is free upon registration. You can register by clicking the link. 

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