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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2009
It is quite well known that the more rotten something is in any nation, the blacker is its humor. Thus, black humor appears during the crucial moments of the “rotten nation” of history, either during wars, stagnation periods, or revolutions. Black humor does not appear during perestroikas — especially those imposed from above — but that is another story.
Of course, black humor does not appeal to every nation. It has to have certain cultural roots. For example, even at the most depressing moments of German history, black humor never really took root. Whereas in Spain, it happened to become one of the most popular instruments for preserving a sense of sanity in society. In Russian culture, the tradition of black humor goes back to skomorokhi (itinerant minstrels) entertaining people at fairs, lubochnaya literaturea (“chap” literature — popular illustrated booklets and prints from the seventeenth century to the 1917 revolution) and through the masterpieces of Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, and others down to our days.
It is here that the discrepancies between national traditions and between life-styles comes into focus; because what a foreigner sees as “black” and absurd, may for a Soviet citizen happen to be his or her everyday life.
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