Representations of the USSR/Russia in David Bowie’s Imagined Travelogue

For many in the Western creative community, the image of the USSR has long carried an air of mystery and menace—it was perceived as dangerous, though simultaneously intriguing and alluring. Those Western intellectuals who had the rare opportunity to visit the Soviet Union often recounted their experiences in highly stylized, mythologized narratives, where glimpses of everyday life were interwoven with stereotypes, clichés, and ideological tropes about the Soviet past. One notable example of a Western artist with firsthand experience of Soviet life is British musician David Bowie (1947–2016). Building on the earlier research into the mythologization of time and the construction of post-truth in Bowie’s life and art, this article examines Bowie’s impressions of the USSR during his 1970s visit and the visual and conceptual world of one of his most enigmatic albums, 1.Outside (1995), which he presented at his only concert in Russia. The study also explores the Russian motifs in one of his darkest albums, The Next Day (2013a), and considers how themes of waiting, surveillance, and espionage link Bowie’s experiences in the USSR/Russia to the narratives embedded in his 1995 and 2013 albums. Together, all parts of Bowie’s imagined travel diary paint a rather bleak view of the country—marked by anticipation, surveillance, espionage, and the oppressive atmosphere of totalitarian control.