A Difficult Neighbourhood. Essays on Russia and East-Central Europe Since World War II

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-485
Author(s):  
Graeme Gill
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
World War ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central

Introduction: From Revolution to Globalization: Foodways in Russia and East-Central Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Mary Neuburger ◽  
Keith Livers
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
First Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Nineteenth Century Literature ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
Economic Necessity ◽  
Century Literature ◽  
The Ideal

This introduction examines how food and foodways were used in Russia and in the Communist Bloc nations of Eastern and Central Europe as a means of envisioning and implementing the idea of a utopian future in the here and now. In the case of Russia, food imagery had been utilized in nineteenth-century literature to imagine the ideal community, which became a political and economic necessity after the October Revolution of 1917. Loudly proclaimed ideals of modernity and progress required tangible results, such as an abundance of cheap and healthy food. Local variants of this followed the spread of Soviet influence to Eastern Europe after World War II. Here new foodways and technologies were likewise introduced in order to create the “dreamworlds” of the future. The fall of communism (1989–91) brought about the need to reimagine culinary landscapes, both as a critique of socialism and—later—as a response to twenty-first-century globalization and homogenization.

Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War II

1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 201
Author(s):  
John C. Campbell ◽  
Joseph Rothschild
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Political History ◽  
World War ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
History Of
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document