Communism and Consumerism: The Soviet Alternative to the Affluent Society (Eurasian Studies Library: History, Societies & Cultures in Eurasia, 7)

Consumption in Russia and the former USSR has been lately studied as regards the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet period. The history of Soviet consumption and the Soviet variety of consumerism in the 1950s-1990s has hardly been studied at all. This book concentrates on the late Soviet period but it also considers pre-WWII and even pre-revolutionary times.The book consists of articles, which survey the longue durée of Russian and Soviet consumer attitudes, Soviet ideology of consumption as indicated in texts concerning fashion, the world of Soviet fashion planning and the survival strategies of the Soviet consumer complaining against sub-standard goods and services in a command economy. There's also a case study concerning the uses of concepts with anti-consumerist content. Contributors include: Lena Bogdanova, Olga Gurova, Timo Vihavainen and Larissa Zakharova. Contents 5 Abbreviations 8 Acknowledgements 9 About This Book 10 Chapter 1 25 The Spirit of Consumerism in Russia and the West 25 Timo Vihavainen 25 The Problem of the Consumerist Mentality 25 The Special Case of Russian and Soviet Consumerism 26 Consumerism and Rationality in Europe 30 The Birth of Consumerism as a Moral Revolution 32 Rational Hedonism as the Ethical Norm in the West 34 The Moralizing Anti-Hedonist Heritage of Marxism 36 ‘Russia’s Specific Path of Development’ and the Question of Consumerism 40 Traditional Ideas Concerning Luxury and Opulence in a Land of Peasants 42 The Antibourgeois Tradition in Early Twentieth Century Russian Culture 47 Chapter 2 52 Consumerism and the Soviet Project 52 Timo Vihavainen 52 The Ideology: Focus on Leveling and Producing 52 The Practice: From Scarcity for Everybody to Well-Being for the Best 55 A Farewell to Leveling 59 From ‘Virtual Consumerism’ to a Hunger for Goods 63 Grande Finale: ‘The Party Solemnly Declares: the Contemporary Generation of the Soviet People will Live in Communism!’ 66 ‘Remnants of the Past’ or Products of Socialist Society? Consumer Attitudes without Consumerism? 70 Victory in the Wrong Race? 74 Consumerism and the End of the Soviet Union 76 ‘The World Revolution of Consumerism’ and Russia 78 Russia – a Latecomer with a Special Heritage 81 Chapter 3 92 The Ideology of Consumption in the Soviet Union 92 Olga Gurova 92 The Concept of Ideology 92 Revolutionary Doctrine of Taste and Everyday Asceticism: The 1920s 94 The Ideology of Kulturnost’ and Legitimating of Consumption in the 1930s and 1940s 96 The Ideology of Soviet Taste: The 1950s and 1960s 99 The Ideology of Growing Materialization: The 1970s and 1980s 102 After Socialism 105 Conclusion 106 Chapter 4 109 How and What to Consume: Patterns of Soviet Clothing Consumption in the 1950s and 1960s 109 Larissa Zakharova 109 Evaluation of Needs and the Theory of Socialist Consumption 110 Legal and Illegal Strategies of Buying Clothes 112 Correlation between Socio-economic Factors and the Choice of Consuming Strategies 121 Influence of the Cultural Factor on the Choice of Consumer Strategies 123 Mechanisms in the Spreading of Fashion 127 Conclusion 130 Archival Materials 133 Chapter 5 137 The Soviet Consumer – More than Just a Soviet Man 137 Elena Bogdanova 137 The Contradictions of Soviet Consumption 140 What They Complained About 145 Where They Lodged Their Complaints 148 Complaints of Soviet Consumers in the Press 150 The Book of Complaints and Suggestions 151 Strategies Used when Writing Consumer Complaints 153 Conclusions 160 List of Quoted Interviews 162 Chapter 6 163 Meshchanstvo or the Spirit of Consumerism and the Russian Mind 163 Timo Vihavainen 163 The Concepts of the Study 163 The Intellectuals and the Intelligenty. Some Comparison 165 The Aim of the Study 171 The Techniques and the Sample 172 ‘Intelligent’, ‘Intelligentnost’’ as Moral Categories 173 Meshchanstvo –the Spirit of Consumerism 179 Conclusion 182 Chapter 7 185 Afterword 185 Appendix 189 Index 193 Consumption in Russia and the former USSR has been lately studied as regards the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet period. The history of Soviet consumption and the Soviet variety of consumerism in the 1950s-1990s has hardly been studied at all. This book concentrates on the late Soviet period but it also considers pre-WWII and even pre-revolutionary times. The book consists of articles, which survey the longue durée of Russian and Soviet consumer attitudes, Soviet ideology of consumption as indicated in texts concerning fashion, the world of Soviet fashion planning and the survival strategies of the Soviet consumer complaining against sub-standard goods and services in a command economy. There's also a case study concerning the uses of concepts with anti-consumerist content.-- Provided by Publisher Biographical note Timo Vihavainen, Ph.D. (1988) in History, University of Helsinki, is Professor of Russian Studies in that university. He has published several books and articles about the history of Russia, history of Finland and Russian-Finnish relations. Elena Bogdanova, Ph.D. (2006) in Sociology, European University in St. Petersburg, is researcher at the Center for Independent Social Research (CISR) and visiting lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland. Readership All those interested in the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Soviet society, history of ideology, consumption, fashion and clothes. This Work Studies The World Of The Soviet Consumer And The Specific Problems, Which Arose Both For The Consumer And The Soviet State In A Command Economy Of Chronic Shortages. It Concentrates On The Latter Half Of The Soviet Period, But Also The Longue Duree Of Russian Consumerism Is Discussed.