Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

History

Advisor

Cynthia H. Whittaker

Committee Members

Dagmar Herzog

Katherine Pence

Randolph Trumbach

Jochen Hellbeck

Subject Categories

History

Abstract

This dissertation argues that the best way to understand the nature of Soviet history is through the prism of food. Soviet citizens were encouraged to see the availability of food as the main measure of success for the construction of a new, Soviet civilization. The disappointment with the inability of the Soviet government to provide the quantity, quality and variety of food that the Soviet consumers expected was one of the major causes for the collapse of the USSR. The first chapter addresses the reasons why and how so unlikely a food as sausage became and remains the primary Russian symbol of economic abundance. Unlike the similarly symbolic goods in other socialist regimes, the Soviet craving for sausage has not been resolved and remains a point of tension in the post-socialist era. The second chapter argues that in a society of scarcity it became necessary to possess heroic status in order to be rewarded with better food in greater amounts. As a result, the heroic claims of the primary beneficiaries of the system, such as the Communist Party, became highly contested. The third chapter deepens the understanding of the successes and failures of the attempts to construct a uniquely Soviet ethnic identity. The two attempts to create a Pan-Soviet cuisine show how even food choices became highly politicized and reflected the fates of the Soviet nationalities policy. Yet, the continued popularity of multi-ethnic dishes demonstrates the continued personal engagement of many consumers with the Soviet past. The fourth chapter unravels a commonly held view by demonstrating that the arrival of McDonald's and other Western food innovations to the late USSR were a continuity of Soviet modernization policies rather than their disruption. The importation of Western-style fast-food into the USSR was supposed to resolve Soviet inefficiency, ease the double burden of working women, and rationalize the process of eating. Soviet culinary reforms faltered and while trying to create the New Soviet Man and Woman, they have given rise to the Nutritionally Dissatisfied Man and Woman instead.

Comments

Digital reproduction from the UMI microform

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