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Marjorie L. Hilton presents a captivating history of consumer
culture in Russia from the 1880s to the early 1930s. She highlights
the critical role of consumerism as a vehicle for shaping class and
gender identities, modernity, urbanism, and as a mechanism of state
power in the transition from tsarist autocracy to Soviet
socialism.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russia witnessed a rise
in mass production, consumer goods, advertising, and new retail
venues such as arcades and department stores. These mirrored
similar developments in other European countries and reflected a
growing quest for leisure activities, luxuries, and a modern
lifestyle. As Hilton reveals, retail commerce played a major role
in developing Russian public culture--it affected celebrations of
religious holidays, engaged diverse groups of individuals, defined
behaviors and rituals of city life, inspired new interpretations of
masculinity and femininity, and became a visible symbol of state
influence and provision.
Through monarchies, revolution, civil war, and monumental changes
in the political sphere, Russia's distinctive culture of
consumption was contested and recreated. Leaders of all stripes
continued to look to the "commerce of exchange" as a key element in
appealing to the masses, garnering political support, and promoting
a modern nation.
Hilton follows the evolution of retailing and retailers alike,
from crude outdoor stalls to elite establishments; through the
competition of private versus state-run stores during the NEP; and
finally to a system of total state control, indifferent workers,
rationing, and shortages under a consolidating Stalinist state.
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