The Soviet Dream World of Retail Trade and Consumption in the 1930s

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 1-16

3. A New Approach to Retailing and Consumption

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 17-43

4. The “Perestroika” of Retail Trade

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 44-66

5. Legitimizing Soviet Trade

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 67-88

6. “Revolutionary Bolshevik Work”

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 89-111

7. The Kontrol’ of Soviet Trade from Above and from Below

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 112-133

8. The Making of the New Soviet Consumer

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 134-157

9. Soviet Retailing and Consumer Culture in Comparative Perspective

   • Amy E. Randall

   Pages 158-179

10. Conclusion

    • Amy E. Randall

    Pages 180-183

11. Back Matter

    Pages 184-251

    PDF

In the early 1930s Soviet authorities launched a campaign to create "socialist" retailing and also endorsed Soviet consumerism. How did the Stalinist regime reconcile retailing and consumption with socialism? This book examines the discourses that the Stalinist regime's new approach to retailing and consumption engendered.

• gender
• revolution
• socialism
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

'Randall's book...makes a welcome and timely contribution to the emerging literature on Soviet consumption, living standards and everyday life in the 1930s and serves as a useful reminder that a consumer society was already in evidence in the Stalin period.' - Business History

'The Soviet Dream World is an excellent contribution to studies of Soviet trade and consumption and a great read for undergraduate, graduate students, scholars, and the general public interested in Soviet history and the history of consumerism.' - Slavic Review

• Santa Clara University, USA

  Amy E. Randall

AMY RANDALL is Assistant Professor of History at Santa Clara University, USA.

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