Consuming and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century: Introductory Remarks, ed. Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger, Heidi Hein-Kircher & Julia Malitska, Cham Palgrave Macmillan 2023.

Eastern European and Russian consumerism not only adopted and aligned Western attitudes, but also developed own ways of negotiating consumption and through that their own lifestyle in modernity. By the turn to twentieth century, different consumption patterns were negotiated differently across these societies, even if products were similar. The establishment of Soviet power can be outlined as an anti-consumerism project, but particular socialist forms of consumption and advertisements emerged, spreading the image of the “socialist world” and socialist ideas of consuming and advertising. These forms deeply shaped everyday life, since consumer goods were considered by the people as the most important part of the promised “good life”, consumption and advertisement were instrumentalized to proof that promise. Hence, the book considers consumption as a cultural practice that reflects values and norms, but also political attitudes, and tool of soft power, while advertisements want to trigger the desires of the consumers. Both consumption and advertisement represent and trigger habitus and self-perception in a society and were used to mobilize the population in favor of the state and nation.

Chair: Dr. Tatsiana Astrouskaya (Herder-Institute)
Introduction:
Heidi Hein-Kircher (Herder-Institute)
Magdalena Eriksroed-Burger (University of Bamberg)
Julia Malitska (Södertörn University)

Comments:
Annina Gagyiova (Department of History, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Alexey Golubev (University of Houston)