Soviet Consumer Culture in the Brezhnev Era

After decades of turmoil and trauma, the Brezhnev era brought stability and an unprecedented rise in living standards to the Soviet Union, enabling ordinary people to enjoy modern consumer goods on an entirely new scale. This book analyses the politics and economics of the state's efforts to improve living standards, and shows how mass consumption was often used as an instrument of legitimacy, ideology and modernization. However, the resulting consumer revolution brought its own problems for the socialist regime. Rising well-being and the resulting ethos of consumption altered citizens' relationship with the state and had profound consequences for the communist project.

Author: Natalya Chernyshova
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 10/12/2015
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.59d
ISBN: 9781138182929

About the Author

Natalya Chernyshova is a Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Winchester, UK.