John Bushnell (at the time of the first publication of this book) was Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University and a former translator for Progress Publishers in Moscow.
Reviews of the original publication: “John Bushnell has analyzed a vast field of popular culture that has not been previously discussed by scholars of Soviet culture because it has never been noticed. Not only has Bushnell seen something no one else has seen; He has correctly recognized its importance. This is a pioneering study, one that no scholar of contemporary cultural production in the Soviet Union will be able to disregard”. -Vladimir Padunov, Wheaton College