{"product_id":"selling-to-the-masses-retailing-in-russia-1880-1930-9780822961673","title":"Selling to the Masses: Retailing in Russia, 1880-1930","description":"Marjorie L. Hilton presents a captivating history of consumer culture in Russia from the 1880s to the early 1930s. She highlights the critical role of consumerism as a vehicle for shaping class and gender identities, modernity, urbanism, and as a mechanism of state power in the transition from tsarist autocracy to Soviet socialism. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russia witnessed a rise in mass production, consumer goods, advertising, and new retail venues such as arcades and department stores. These mirrored similar developments in other European countries and reflected a growing quest for leisure activities, luxuries, and a modern lifestyle. As Hilton reveals, retail commerce played a major role in developing Russian public culture--it affected celebrations of religious holidays, engaged diverse groups of individuals, defined behaviors and rituals of city life, inspired new interpretations of masculinity and femininity, and became a visible symbol of state influence and provision. Through monarchies, revolution, civil war, and monumental changes in the political sphere, Russia s distinctive culture of consumption was contested and recreated. Leaders of all stripes continued to look to the \\u201ccommerce of exchange\\u201d as a key element in appealing to the masses, garnering political support, and promoting a modern nation. Hilton follows the evolution of retailing and retailers alike, from crude outdoor stalls to elite establishments; through the competition of private versus state-run stores during the NEP; and finally to a system of total state control, indifferent workers, rationing, and shortages under a consolidating Stalinist state.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarjorie L. Hilton\u003c\/b\u003e is assistant professor of history at Murray State University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Pittsburgh Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50917925028114,"sku":"9780822961673","price":59.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_578ce35b-faf9-4604-a687-14903325d2bd.jpg?v=1738872082","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/selling-to-the-masses-retailing-in-russia-1880-1930-9780822961673","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}