Andrei Kurkov

Around a dozen representatives of the hippie movement still live in Lviv. They paint a varied portrait of this movement—or, more accurately, non-movement. The single unifying element was a love of ‘forbidden’ western music; the heart of their ideology was a love of freedom. Beyond that, each of them went their own way. The hippies were seen as harmless by the authorities, since they were not considered political opponents of the Soviet system. But Lviv’s first Amnesty Internationalrepresentative was one of the founders of the Soviet hippie movement. So what mattered more: music or politics, free love or drugs? Were these hippies part of a global movement or did they create something unique?

This was a Andrei Sheptyts'kyi Senior Fellowship as part of the Ukraine in European Dialogue program. These fellowships are offered by invitation to outstanding international scholars who have demonstrated longstanding intellectual solidarity with Ukraine.