Soviet Consumer Culture in the Brezhnev Era (Taylor & Francis Ltd)

This book tells the story of the late Soviet consumer revolution. It 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 modernisation. It also discusses however how rising prosperity altered citizens relationship with the state, and how, although the image of Soviet consumers endlessly queuing for inferior products is much overstated, people 's engagement with consumer modernity had profound consequences for the communist project.