Communism unwrapped: consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe PDF
Preview Communism unwrapped: consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe
Communism Unwrapped This page intentionally left blank Communism Unwrapped Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe edited by paulina bren and mary neuburger 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Communism unwrapped : consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe / edited by Paulina Bren and Mary Neuburger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-982767-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-19-982765-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Communism—Europe, Eastern. 2. Consumption (Economics) 3. Lifestyles—Europe, Eastern. I. Bren, Paulina. II. Neuburger, Mary, 1966– HX240.7.A6C576 2012 339.4 ′ 709409045—dc23 2012015112 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To the memory of Jacqueline Lucas Rocks, who spent much of the 1990s in Prague “unwrapping communism” This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi Contributors xiii Introduction 3 Paulina Bren and Mary Neuburger Part I . Living Large 1. Tuzex and the Hustler: Living It Up in Czechoslovakia 27 Paulina Bren 2. Utopia Gone Terribly Right: Plutonium’s “Gated Communities” in the Soviet Union and United States 49 Kate Brown 3. “Knife in the Water”: The Struggle over Collective Consumption in Urbanizing Poland 68 Kacper Pobłocki Part II . Quality Control 4. The Taste of Smoke: Bulgartabak and the Manufacturing of Cigarettes and Satisfaction 91 Mary Neuburger viii contents 5. Risky Business: What Was Really Being Sold in the Department Stores of Socialist Eastern Europe? 116 Patrick Hyder Patterson 6. Material Harmony: The Quest for Quality in Socialist Bulgaria, 1960s–1980s 140 Rossitza Guentcheva Part III . Kitchen Talk 7. Eating Up Yugoslavia: Cookbooks and Consumption in Socialist Yugoslavia 169 Wendy Bracewell 8. Grounds for Discontent? Coffee from the Black Market to the K affeeklatsch in the GDR 197 Katherine Pence 9. From Black Caviar to Blackouts: Gender, Consumption, and Lifestyle in Ceauşescu’s Romania 226 Jill Massino Part IV . To Market, to Market . . . 10. The Socialist Clearinghouse: Alcohol, Reputation, and Gender in Romania’s Second Economy 255 Narcis Tulbure 11. The Extraordinary Career of F eketevágó Úr : Wood Theft, Pig Killing, and Entrepreneurship in Communist Hungary, 1948–1956 277 Karl Brown 12. Keeping It Close to Home: Resourcefulness and Scarcity in Late Socialist and Postsocialist Poland 298 Małgorzata Mazurek Part V . Constructive Criticism 13. Kids, Cars, or Cashews? Debating and Remembering Consumption in Socialist Hungary 325 Tamas Dombos and Lena Pellandini-Simanyi CONTENTS ix 14. The House That Socialism Built: Reform, Consumption, and Inequality in Postwar Yugoslavia 351 Brigitte Le Normand 15. Shop Around the Bloc: Trader Tourism and Its Discontents on the East German–Polish Border 374 Mark Keck-Szajbel Index 393
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