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

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

Material Culture in Russia and the USSR comprises some of the most cutting-edge scholarship across anthropology, history and material and cultural studies relating to Russia and the Soviet Union, from Peter the Great to 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 alcohol, fashion, cinema, advertising 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; who produces it; what values it portrays; and how it relates to ‘high culture’ and consumer culture.

“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

“The book 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 Russian and Soviet setting while linking these objects to worldwide patterns of consumption and exchange.” – The Russian Review

Graham H. Roberts teaches Russian Studies at Universite Paris Nanterre, France.