Communism unwrapped : consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe

430 Pages·2012·3.772 MB·English

by  Paulina Bren, Mary Neuburger

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