Journeys of Soviet Things

<p>At the intersection of cultural history material culture studies memory studies and feminist geopolitics <i>Journeys of Soviet Things</i> is an oral history of socialist globalisation constructed around the journeys of Cold War era Soviet objects in India and Cuba. During the Cold War an important means to perpetuate Soviet ideals of modernisation and anti-imperialist solidarity across the world was the circulation of ‘banal’ objects produced in the Soviet Union and purchased awarded and gifted for use in homes across the world. Based on oral accounts of Indian and Cuban interlocutors this book examines the itineraries of Soviet objects such as cars washing machines cameras books nesting dolls porcelain and many other things. Explored this way the Cold War is a matter of personal affective everyday experience. </p><p>At the same time by indicating the cohabitation of things in their home from around the world interlocutors also go on to undercut simple geopolitical binaries that pit Soviet against American techno-politics. Accounts of Soviet objects in India and Cuba reveal a bricolage of preferences that crisscrossed ideological dualities of East vs West communist vs capitalist making for an alternative cosmopolitanism that was in equal measure shaped by personal local and national histories and experiences. </p><p>This book will appeal to readers interested in Cold War history the history of transnational solidarities and Soviet material culture.</p>