Material Culture in Russia and the USSR: Things, Values, Identities- eBook

Material Culture in Russia and the USSR (PDF) comprises some of the most cutting-edge scholarships across history, anthropology, and material and cultural studies relating to Russia and the Soviet Union, from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin. Material culture in Russia and the USSR holds a particularly important role, as the distinction between private and public spheres has at times developed in radically different ways than in many places in the more commonly studied West. With case studies covering fashion, alcohol, advertising, cinema, and photography among other topics, this wide-ranging collection offers an unparalleled survey of material culture in Russia and the USSR and addresses core questions such as: what makes Russian and Soviet material culture distinctive; what values it portrays; who produces it; and how it relates to ‘high culture’ and consumer culture.

Reviews

“Material Culture in Russia and the USSR: Things, Values, Identities is a welcome addition to what is still an underrepresented field, studies of the material culture of Eastern Europe.” ― H-Net “In his introduction to Material Culture in Russia and the USSR, Graham Roberts not only offers a solid definition of what constitutes material culture but also argues that the 11 articles in this collection bridge the gap between Slavic and material culture studies.” ― Canadian Slavonic Papers “The ebook is an important contribution to the field, and its strongest chapters contextualize material culture in Russia and the USSR by placing it in a global and transnational perspective, allowing us to identify the particular meanings of objects in a Soviet and Russian setting while linking these objects to worldwide patterns of consumption and exchange.” ― The Russian Review