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The Taste of Nationalism: Food Politics in Postsocialist Moscow

Melissa L. Caldwell
Harvard University , usa

abstract In this article I consider how Muscovites cultivate and express nationalist sentiments through their food choices. During the last ten years of the postsocialist transition, Russian consumers have encountered an expanding and increasingly transnational commodity market. Locally produced elements of Russian cuisine both compete with and imitate foreign food products. In response to perceptions that foreign cultures are displacing or subsuming local cultural forms, Russian officials have launched a Buy Russian campaign. Domestic food producers, store clerks, and customers collaborate to classify foods and other products as either Ours (Nash) or Not Ours (Ne nash) and describe local goods as superior to foreign goods in terms of taste, quality, and healthfulness. In their own narratives about consumption choices, Muscovites echo these nationalist themes by explicitly linking their personal food experiences with broader political issues. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork on food practices in Moscow (19952001), I suggest that consumption strategies mediate Muscovites experiences with growing nationalist sentiments in the context of a globalizing Russia. keywo rds Food, nationalism, Moscow, Russia, postsocialism

n summer 2000, I was riding the metro in Moscow when an advertisement overhead caught my ey e. The poster depicted a steaming cup of fast-cooking ramen noodles, and the caption read: American equipment, Russian production. We all eat only our [nash] soup. Its noodle time! During the last several years of Russias postsocialist transition, such pairings of the local and the global, the national and the transnational, have popped up throughout Moscow on subway w alls, billboards, restaurant menus, transit maps, and in glossy magazines and plain newspapers. Summertime sidewalk cafs serve Russian-sty le foods and beverages under umbrellas decorated with
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the logos of global corporations, and the cheerful say ings that cover the plastic bags in which customers purchases are placed are as likely to be in English as they are in Russian. In my riad and complex way s, Russians consumption experiences have been transformed so that the new, post-Soviet Russia is strategically positioned within the ebb and flow of global advertising; and juxtapositions such as these are commonplace in local culture. As a commercial commodity , the West has long been present in daily life in Russia and other socialist states, both as a foil to state political ideologies and as a viable economic currency (Berdahl 1 999 b; Crowley 2000; Kelly 1 998 ). Formerly visitors to what was then the Soviet Union recall surreptitious transactions with local entrepreneurs that involved American blue jeans and cigarettes in exchange for Russian souvenirs. Foreign commodities from Western Europe and North America, when obtainable, were generally procured only by elites w ith special privileges or by fortunate individuals with fruitful exchange networks.1 In the post-Soviet period, however, Western commodities have become widely available throughout Russia and are compelling indicators of the political and economic changes that have occurred in the country during the last ten y ears. In the first half of the 1 990s, food products from North America and Western Europe were typically found only in more expensive, specialty supermarkets that catered to foreigners living in Moscow and to Russias political and economic elite. By the late 1 990s, the availability of foreign food products (and other commodities) in Russia has grown as a result of a combination of such factors as increased production at transnational food corporations in Russia, decreased costs associated with imports, and greater market demand by local consumers. Today Moscow shoppers can fill their shopping carts w ith American frozen pizzas, German meats and sausages, Finnish dairy products, and Chinese noodles and spices. Sidewalk stands selling sausages and chops from the local state-ow ned meat factory, or milk products from the state dairy , increasingly compete for space with kiosks offering pizza slices and Chinese take-away. These changes reveal that foreign food products now compete directly with local products, thereby complicating the status of the West as the Other in Russians increasingly globalized consumption practices. In state -owned shops, privately-owned stores, small sidewalk kiosks, and foreign supermarkets alike, Russian-manufactured staples such as flour, sugar, and salt, often wrapped in monotone packaging with minimal descriptions of the contents, share shelf-space with gaily wrapped foreign-made prepared foods and instant meals.2 In the Eliseevskii Gastronom, an elegant pre -revolutionary food
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shop that attracts tourists and local residents with its ornate wooden w all carvings and glittering chandeliers, brightly colored advertisements assure customers that by eating a particular brand of American breakfast cereal they will be members of a global community of like -minded consumers. Yet, even as many Muscovites have assimilated into their daily lives such aspects of capitalist consumer practices as credit cards, fast food restaurants, and American business English, other Muscovite consumers have expressed misgivings over the incorporation of foreign elements so completely into local culture. These concerns have been reflected in a recent surge of nationalist sentiments oriented at cultivating and maintaining an idealized Russianness that privileges ethnic, religious, cultural, and ideological homogeneity over diversity (Caldwell forthcoming; Filipov 1 999 ; Lemon 1 995 ; Humphrey 1 999). In practical terms, this phenomenon that Khazanov has termed exclusive ethnic nationalism (Khazanov 1 997 :1 25 ) has been realized through purification efforts to rid Russia of potentially polluting foreign elements, including commodities, ideologies, and even people. One striking by -product of these trends has been the growing appeal of a specialized niche of commodities that draw on Russian linguistic markers and historical-cultural allusions in order to cater to the notion that Russians share a unique set of tastes and values that is not satisfied by imports or other transnational products. The grow th of this commercialized nationalism has found popularity among consumers who carefully calculate the extent to which the foods and other items that they buy reflect the specifically Russian values and attributes they espouse. Through the shared consumer experience that emerges from the careful manipulation of these products, these shoppers publicly situate themselves within an imagined national community. My aim in this article is to investigate the current popularity of nationalist food practices in Russia as part of a reorientation of Russian consumer processes. This shift, however, is more than simply the creation or resurgence of local food practices in the face of transnational influences (cf. Watson 1 997 ; Wilk 1 999 ). Rather, I suggest that it highlights a Russian consumer culture that refashions practices more typically associated with market capitalism to preserve values that are more recognizably socialist notably ethics of sociality and collective responsibility. In Moscow, consumers food choices reflect their unease w ith the implications of the transition to democratic capitalism. In particular, Muscovites food practices reproduce a commitment to a more collective, singular sense of Russianness than that envisioned with capitalist individualism and autonomy , and particularly the variety of capitalism typiethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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cally associated with American culture. Through their food choices, Muscovites emphasize their connection to a cohesive sense of Russianness by transforming Russias political and economic concerns into personally and collectively meaningful experiences. To explore these issues, I first examine how changes in Russias consumer practices during the last ten y ears reflect other shifts in Russias relations to the commercial West. From this discussion, I proceed to an exploration of the specific aspects of a nationalist mode of food consumption. The material on which this article is based derives from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Moscow between 1 995 and 2001 , as part of a larger project on changing consumer practices in post-Soviet Russia.3 The ethnographic analysis in this article combines data from interviews; surveys; personal observations in shops and restaurants; and various textual documents such as product wrappers, commercials, advertisements, magazines, and journals. The Muscovites whose perspectives I include in this article are middle -class high school and university students, faculty members, parents, and grandparents. Socialized Food Consumption in Russia Changing food practices in Moscow comprise one strand of the larger consumer revolution (Davis 2 000) that has sw ept Russia, Eastern Europe, China, and other socialist societies during the last ten y ears (Barker 1 999a; Berdahl 1 999 b; Gillette 2 000; Jing 2000; Verdery 1 996 ; Watson 1 997 ). According to one interpretation, these changes are important because they signal a shift aw ay from the chronic shortages and state -dictated supply conditions that formerly characterized socialist states and curtailed the extent to which citizens were active participants in consumption activities. Caroline Humphrey has argued ( 1 995 ) that Soviet citizens were not active consumers because they did not participate in the consumption process. Tw o financial consultants argued that as of 1 992 , markets and consumers do not as y et exist in any real sense in Russia (Clarke & Koptev 1 992 :2 3 ).4 An alternative perspec tive, however, holds that socialist soc ieties w ere indisputably consumer societies because citizens were compelled to find creative way s to negotiate the existing system (Barker 1 999 b; Berdahl 1 999 b; Condee & Padunov 1 995 ). One element common to Soviet-sty le societies was that the state established itself as the provider for citizens needs by ow ning and operating all aspects of production and distribution (Verdery 1 996). In contrast to market capitalism models that are geared to consumers demands (Smith 1 981 ), state socialist plans dictated consumers needs by determining
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which goods would be produced and in w hat quantity. One consequence was that this process constrained the degree of product variation, thus ensuring that the goods available in Moscow were identical to those available throughout the Soviet Union.5 The homogenous nature of the consumer experience also limited shoppers abilities to distinguish themselves through material resources.6 Only elites and foreigners had easy access to unusual or imported commodities, and this was primarily through travel abroad or through privileges at special stores that were closed to the rest of the population. These circumstances did not mean that ordinary citizens w ere denied the ability to express agency and individuality in their consumer choices, however. Russians who wanted to set themselves apart from their neighbors resorted to channels and strategies that existed outside the officially legal realm. Exchange transactions through extensive informal networks thus became another important means of access for both everyday necessities and periodic luxuries, while black market traders who sold goods that had been smuggled across the borders or traded from foreigners offered another avenue for creative consumption.7 The transactional nature of Russians consumer practices was inherently social and acutely shaped peoples daily routines and practices. The unpre dictability of market supplies and episodic scarcities prompted shoppers to buy up goods when they were available and store them for the future. Customers also participated in collective consumer activities such as sharing, shopping for relatives and friends, approaching store departments with a divide and conquer method when shopping with friends, and holding places in queues for other shoppers. Informal transactions depended on the integrity of exchange partners who could offer personal guarantees for the quality or reliability of the goods, services, and information that was transmitted through the networks. Thus social relations became powerful forms of currency in the socialist economy , both as means to procure and exchange goods, and as means to evaluate the w orth of the goods and the information that flowed through the transactions.8 This emphasis on social networks as a necessary component to everyday life has continued into the present period (Caldw ell 1 999 ; Pesmen 2 000). For many Russians, the acquisition and display of foreign commodities provided opportunities to articulate personal opinions about the state and their experiences with state socialism. On the one hand, consumer practices that existed outside the official economy emphasized the inability of the state to meet the needs and interests of its citizens. On the other hand, the careful
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creation and maintenance of scarcities revealed the states control over the most intimate aspects of everyday life. For those citizens whose personal views did not match those of the state, the consumption of foreign goods such as American-made blue jeans provided a channel for articulating dissent (Humphrey 1 995 ). For others, the conspicuous exhibition of foreign products represented the successful navigation of informal networks. The carefully arranged display s of foreign shampoos, toothpaste, or detergents that graced peoples bathroom shelves, a feature also observed by Berdahl in Eastern Germany (1 999 b), testified to ones worth and status in manipulating exchange activities. It is within this context of socialist consumption that food practices have provided a particularly critical vantage point for exploring intersections between state -level efforts to cultivate an appropriate and productive citizen and the concomitant efforts of those citizens to carve out unique and independent identities for themselves.9 Part of the Soviet project to promote and enforce communism included the transfer of food preparation and eating into the public realm. Public dining in communal kitchens, workplace canteens, and state -owned cafeterias and food shops w as envisioned as an opportunity to instill in Soviet citizens socialist values of social and economic emancipation, egalitarianism, and collective responsibility (Borrero 1 997 ; Goldstein 1 996 ; Rothstein & Rothstein 1 997 ). Despite the states intentions, however, public dining never replaced completely the family kitchen (Glants & Toomre 1 997 :xixxvii; Goldstein 1 996), and ironically the kitchen became valued as a safe space w here close friends could interact aw ay from the prying eyes of the state (Ries 1 997 ). Thus both practically and ideologically , food practices have occupied a special position within Russians experiences with state socialism, both in their relations w ith the state as w ell as their relations with each other. For instance, despite the access of most citizens to an extensive set of social networks, the ability to procure scarce foreign commodities remained the privilege of a small minority , thereby reminding Russians that social differences did in fact exist within an official ideology of equality. Marina Fy edorovna, a university professor, recalled an occasion during the 1 97 0s when she was invited to visit a private dining room that w as available only to a small group of elite officials. There she encountered bananas for the first time in her life, and immediately fell in love with their taste. Afterwards, a friend remarked that it was unfortunate that she liked bananas because They are unpatriotic, meaning, as Marina Fy edorovna explained, that they were unavailable to the general Soviet public.
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Food practices also became entangled with Soviet foreign affairs. As Crowley has noted, consumption, in the context of the Cold War, became a sy mbolic field of conflict on which allies and enemies could be plotted (2000:28 ). Among the goods that were the most symbolically dangerous to the image of the Soviet state were Western goods (Barker 1 999b) most notably American commodities, which were alternatively associated with cultural impoverishment and imperialism (Crowley 2 000; Kelly 1 998 ). Commercial negotiations over food-related transactions between the Soviet Union and its ideological rivals during this period were frequently infused with politically charged propaganda. The efforts by McDonalds Canada (and not McDonalds u.s.a.) to provide the food services for the 1 980 Oly mpic Games in Moscow were reportedly turned down by Soviet officials w ho were loathe to reveal to their rivals the inefficiencies of the domestic food service system (Hume 1 990:1 6 ).10 [McDonalds Canada subsequently opened its first Russian restaurant in January 1 990.] In the late 1 980s, an American food corporation became ensnared in Russian popular opinion against u.s . President George Bushs policies toward Russia when Russians renamed the company s frozen chicken legs Bush legs and alleged that the products were tainted. Meanwhile, the Snickers candy bar became associated with a distinctly American sty le of Fordist industry and business, and the w ord Snikerizatsiia (Snickerization) emerged in local discourse as a disparaging comment on the American-influenced reforms that were occurring in Russias commercial spheres.11 The increasing openness that accompanied President Mikhail Gorbachevs policies of glasnost and perestroika during the late 1 980s, and later continued with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1 991 , paved the way for changes in Russian consumer culture, most notably the states acceptance of foreign food and other commodities. As a result of reforms that eased restrictions to the outside world, foreign companies rapidly entered the Russian market and either joined forces with local industries in joint-venture projects, or established themselves as competitors, thus generating myriad alternatives to local goods, service sty les, and production practices. Today the institutional homogeneity and scarcity that marked Soviet consumption has given way to product variety, and store shelves sport multiple brands, sizes, and sty les of every product conceivable. One source reported that in the post-1 991 pe riod, Russian consumers preferred imported food products to domestic goods by a two-to-one ratio (McChesney 1 999).

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The Appeal of the Foreign On one level, the popularity of previously unknow n foods in Moscow corresponds to the inquisitive interest that surrounded their initial appearance in Russias commercial market. In Moscow, many respondents reported that they had been curious to see for themselves what foreign life looked and tasted like. Several people cited McDonalds as a novel experience in food taste, culinary sty le, and public dining. When two North American colleagues and I treated a Muscovite friend to dinner at a Thai restaurant in Moscow , the young women reported that she was expected to describe the meal in great detail to her work associates the next day. Other Muscovites mentioned being curious about foreign candies; one informant remarked that the combination of milk chocolate and nuts in American-sty le candy bars was intriguing because it differed from Russian chocolate bars that were appreciated for their subtle taste variations. Soft drinks such as Pepsi-Cola, and later Coca-Cola, also contrasted w ith domestic carbonated beverages that sported herbal flavors (see also Caldwell 1 998 ). The term exotic (ekzoticheskii ) frequently emerged in discussions with Muscovites about why they had tried or continued to use foreign foods. Yet for many consumers foreign commodities also represented features of quality and taste that w ere not simply different from Russian commodities, but were in fact seen as lacking in local products. One university student explained his preference for foreign foods w ith the statement, Russian markets lack domestic food goods that are the equivalent [of foreign products] in terms of taste and quality. In similar terms, his classmate noted that he preferred foreign foods because of their tasty quality. Marketers often woo Russian customers by appealing to these convictions that foreign foods, particularly those from Western Europe or North America, embody higher standards of quality than their domestic counterparts. In turn, Russian producers strategically capitalize on the popularity of foreign goods in the way s they market their products and the technology they use. Local enterprises import foreign machinery as a means to replicate the quality of products made in the West. For instance, in the early 1 990s, following the success enjoyed by McDonalds, a fast food restaurant named St. Petersburgers opened and advertised that it had imported cooking equipment from the West. Many Russian companies have also adopted customer service philosophies more usually associated w ith North American business practices. Previously , with the Soviet emphasis on production over consumption (see Verdery 1 996), employ ment was guaranteed and workers had little incentive to assist buyers. Consequently , prompt and polite service was a rarity. Although such pracethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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tices continue today , notably in state -owned businesses or bureaucratic offices, the overall consumption experience in the commercial sphere has been transformed. McDonalds ideology of serving customers efficiently and with courtesy , for example, has spread throughout the service industry in Russia. Customers who walk into restaurants and shops throughout Moscow and St. Petersburg are welcomed by smiling employ ees who offer assistance and hover helpfully nearby. Perhaps even more revealing is that it is becoming more common for managers to apologize to customers w ho have been kept waiting or whose food has not been prepared properly. Finally, some local producers have resorted to imitating foreign products directly, either by making claims as to the goods authenticity as non-Russian, or by asserting that they are widely popular in their alleged countries of origin.12 In most cases a claim of Americanness seems to provide a critical selling point, such as w ith Baskin Robbins ice cream that is advertised as The most favorite ice cream in America. Often the labeling attached to domestic products closely resembles their foreign prototypes, such as boxes of cold cereal (a recent introduction to Russian breakfasts that are more generally identified by hot cereals) that bear an uncanny resemblance to their American competitors, complete with large striped felines and red poultry. A breath mint that supposedly neutralizes the alcohol in ones blood is purported to be the drug of choice for American motorists who drink and drive. In a more unusual pitch, I overheard a vendor at a souvenir market try to sell a carved chicken toy with the claim that it w as very American, and that chicken w as a popular comestible in the United States precisely because of its great sy mbolic value there. Verifiable authenticity is not at stake in these connections; instead it is the allusions that these products make to a specific field of nationally oriented values, qualities, and tastes that factor into consumers expectations. For instance, one Russian-made potato chip flavor was advertised as American rather than barbecue, while a package of apple- and bacon-flavored instant mashed potatoes was marketed as German. In addition, counterfeit products that play on recognized Western brands for instance, Finta orange soda, Redbok sporting gear, and the Oil of Olay z and Oil of Ulay cosmetic brands have flooded the Russian market. Despite the problems in international copyright law that these forgery products have caused, they have had a direct impact on local technology standards and capabilities, so that many domestic foods and other products are as good as their foreign competitors.
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On another level, the lifesty les that are embodied in foreign foods correlate more closely to the new needs and interests of workers in today s Russia. The Soviet-era commodity shortages disciplined consumers to seek out creative way s to maximize the time and effort they could use for shopping and standing in line.13 Many citizens used their time on the job to do their shopping, thereby fostering more flexible distinctions between work time and personal time. The introduction of North American corporate practices, especially a strict accounting of work time and sharp delineation between company time and personal time, has severely curtailed these possibilities for combining shopping and other personal responsibilities with work. American managers have complained that one of their most difficult challenges in restructuring Russian businesses has been to keep employees in the office from 9 a.m. until 5 or 6 p.m., or later, with only a short break for a mid-day meal. The introduction of packaged, prepared foods such as soup in a cup, frozen dinners, fresh salads, jars of baby food, and boxed juices and milk have appealed to Muscovites who are juggling family and work responsibilities with limited free time. By way of illustration, before Valentina, a sixty -y earold pensioner, could leave Moscow for a week-long visit to her friends summer cottage, she spent an entire day shopping and cooking for her thirty y ear-old son who remained at home. Television commercials and magazine advertisements strategically market the benefits of easy -to-prepare foods to harried parents and workers. One young woman, who was expecting her first child, admitted that she favored pre-made Western foods because they helped her save time for other chores. Tw o middle -aged women supported the importance of time -saving techniques when praising the jars of baby food that have hit Russian store shelves in recent years. Both women were doctors and recalled that 20 y ears ago, when their children were small, they had to devote long hours to making meals for their husbands and then making food that their children could eat. They confessed that they envied their daughters-in-law who used convenience items such as commercial baby foods and disposable diapers. Children, meanw hile, can feed themselves with instant soups, thereby reducing the responsibilities of mothers and grandmothers to prepare extra meals in advance. One university student summed up the general sentiments of her classmates when she remarked that foreign foods were faster to prepare, cheaper, and easier to procure. The diversification of the foreign food market in Russia is further linked with increasing socioeconomic diversity. As Roseberry (1 996 ) has similarly described for the growth of a differentiated coffee market in the United States,
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and Terrio ( 1 996 ) for the place of artisanal chocolates within a gentrification movement in France, Russian consumers can make claims to social identities by aligning themselves with the values and ideals associated with specific food choices. In Moscow, children and y oung adults admit that they purchase American and European foods and other commodities in order to acquaint themselves with life outside Russia or to identify themselves as modern. In response to my question about w hy he preferred foreign foods, one y oung Muscovite casually replied, I am cosmopolitan. This packaging of food with a lifesty le of global sophistication is present in the marketing tactics of restaurants and companies. Restaurants cater to Moscow s new financial elite by offering business lunches, often complete with French champagne and American liquors. Food corporations sponsor contests in which the prizes all possible through the consumption of the appropriate beverages or snack foods link tastes with opportunities to travel abroad or to win tickets to concerts given by foreign musical groups. Extreme examples of this preference for the foreign are evident in the conspicuous consumption practices attributed to New Russians, Russias class of nouveaux riches. It is more than simply expensive tastes that characterize New Russians, how ever; popular opinion generally links the economic elite with foreign commodities such as American and German supermarkets that sell imported bread, meat, cheese, and beer; as well as with foreign luxury automobiles and electronics. Nevertheless, even as many Muscovites identify lifestyle, convenience, price, and novelty as motivations for buy ing foreign foods, other Muscovites have returned to buying both Russian foods and Russian imitations of foreign products even when these products are more expensive or harder to find.14 Transnational corporations have recognized the economic implications of consumers preferences for the local and have given their products distinctively Russian attributes: for instance, a series of Coca-Cola commercials in 1 997 1 998 featured characters from Russian folklore, while McDonalds has widely publicized that its meat and produce are domestically produced. In the next section I explore the grow th of this locally oriented niche of consumer products, and consider its importance within a larger nationalist movement in Moscow. Buying Russian: The Power of the Local The popularity of foreign foods and their domestic imitators has been matched by the emergence of a more explicitly nationalistic orientation to consumption in Moscow. In 1 995 , Russkoe Bistro, an inexpensive Russian fast food
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This billboard on the side of a bus stop shelter reads: We support Russian production! Buy domestic! Help Russia! Photo: Melissa L. Caldwell.

chain that sells Russian foods such as pelmeni (dumplings), pirozhki and other filled pastries, and vodka, opened its first restaurant directly across from the site of the first McDonalds in Moscow. Since then, a number of restaurants
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and cafs that offer Russian food at both the low and high ends of the price scale have opened in Moscow, as well as in other cities in Russia. It is worth noting that even here, at the level of the local, imitation continues to shape the market. Knock-off restaurants such as Slavianskoe Bistro offer menus and peasant-themed logos very similar to those of Russkoe Bistro; more telling is that the napkins and sugar packets in Slavianskoe Bistro are identical to those of its archetype including the logo and words Russkoe Bistro. Despite the wide availability of restaurants that serve foreign foods, Russian cuisine is a popular choice among Muscovites. In a survey that I conducted among high school and university students, most respondents reported that although they had tried foreign foods and, in some cases, liked items such as pizza and hamburgers, they preferred Russian foods even when Russian foods were pizza or hamburgers that their mothers had prepared at home. One y oung w oman explained that Russian food contained Russian soul (dusha).15 Her classmate stated more simply, People from Russia like Russian tastes. In an effort to tap into these taste preferences, as w ell as to acknowledge the improving quality of domestic food and other goods and to respond to fears that foreign products are controlling the local market, Russian officials have launched a Buy Russian campaign for food and other goods. In the context of a country with growing nationalist sentiments and political movements, Muscovites who buy Russian fuse brand loy alty with national loyalty. One particularly compelling aspect of this claim to nationalistic consumption has been the deploy ment of images and values drawn from Russias past. Muscovites variously characterize authentic Russian foods as those made by traditional preparations, from traditionsmentioned in conversations about Russian cooking, and according to traditional criteria as I have been accustomed to think since childhood. Several y oung women mentioned historical factors. Others remarked that Russian foods had Russian roots, while one person added that Russian traditions were supplemented by Russias unique climatic basis. Anthropologists and others who work in postsocialist spaces have observed that the socialistpostsocialist transition has been characterized by a commercialized appropriation of the past and the traditional.16 The comestible past is a powerful lure for Moscow shoppers who are interested in preserving and perpetuating an idealized Russian nation. Not only does a commercialized historicity situate consumers within an uncontested version of Russianness, but it also facilitates a mechanics of shared memory and hidden histoethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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ries (Watson 1 994:7 ) that unifies customers in a singularizing national experience. Russian companies have implemented aggressive marketing tactics that appeal to consumers sense of national pride by emphasizing the historical components of their food products. One brewery claims that its beer is created according to traditional Russian recipes: Our enterprise ... employ s the best traditions of Russian brewing. A fly er for a brand of Russian cookies assures customers that: We make all products according to old Russian recipes, without modern additives. Allusions to the past are made explicit in such items as Nostalgia brand vodka beverages, which depict historic monuments on its cans; Peter the Great cigarettes; Stepan Razin (leader of a 1 7 th-century peasant rebellion) beer; and Istok (The Source) vodka advertisements that feature pictures of famous Soviet personages with the promise When I return (Kogda Ya Vernus ). Idyllic peasant themes and bucolic country side motifs are another popular marketing ploy. For instance, cartons of House in the Village (Domik v derevne) brand of milk products feature a grandmotherly w oman standing in front of cow s in a field. Popular cooking magazines such as Kulinar and Gurman include special sections devoted to foods from the Russian home, Russian holiday s and traditions, and even to Soviet recipes. Moreover, the names of several of Russias oldest (i.e., predating the post-Soviet and in some cases Soviet period) and finest confectionary companies explicitly invoke revolutionary themes from Russian history: the Red October, Red Front, and Bolshevik candy companies. Svetlana Boym ( 1 999) and Theresa Sabonis-Chafee ( 1 999 ) have argued that these strategic uses of the past reflect a nostalgic movement currently in vogue in Russia. These forms of nostalgia can be both sentimental, as in the case of kitsch, and ironic, as in the use of camp (Sabonis-Chafee 1 999:3 7 3 ), but together produce a mythologized national past and identity.17 One fad in Moscow is the spread of nostalgia restaurants that recreate the experience of dining in particular historical periods. Customers can choose from among nineteenth-century inns (traktir) and hunting lodges, or restaurants from the more recent past such as a Soviet-era canteen, complete with decorations from that period. A restaurant in a hotel associated with an old monastery offers ancient recipes that have been adapted to contemporary products. In some cases, however, commemorative dining is available only to the affluent, such as patrons of a more European-themed restaurant named Nostalgie that claims to offer a more democratic menu at noticeably undemocratic prices: according to one advertisement, dinner prices start at US$5 0. Repre ethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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sentations that evoke images and ideals from the Russian and Soviet past celebrate the good times of earlier moments as desirable values and features that continue to shape and respond to the unique circumstances of postsocialist daily life. More significantly, these ideals also appeal to a nationalist pride that reinforces the specificity of a Russian experience at odds with the encroaching outside world. Nash: Consuming the Nation The most striking aspect of this nationalizing culinary movement, how ever, has been the deploy ment of classifiers such as our own (svoi) and foreign (chuzhoi), and more routinely, ours (nash) and not ours (ne nash). The concepts of nash and ne nash, or ours and not ours, respectively, are important concepts of social inclusion and exclusion in everyday Russian life (Caldw ell 1 999 ; Humphrey 1 995 ; Pesmen 2 000; Stepanov 1 997 :47 2 ; cf. Okely 1 996 ). For Muscovites, the nash system is both a segmentary system of inclusionary and exclusionary identity and a marker of sentimental solidarity and imagined uniformity. Ty pically , people distinguish between friends and strangers, or between co-nationals and foreigners, by classify ing them as either belonging to or outside of a group known as nash. For instance, on one occasion in Moscow , a friend and I observed a young man dressed in biking clothes and carry ing a mountain bike come out of the metro. My friend turned to me and commented, Hes not dressed like one of ours (On odet ne po-nashemu). Additionally, in a society in which informal social relations have long been instrumental for everyday survival (Ledeneva 1 998 ; Pesmen 2000), Muscovites explain that it is to nash individuals that one offers assistance or emotional sympathy because they are the persons w ith whom one feels a sense of fellowship and collective responsibility. The flexible ideology of nash is simultaneously expansive and constrictive, however, and the communities that are constituted through perceptions of solidarity and similarity do not alway s align neatly with ethnic, racial, religious, or even nationalist identities. For instance, I have noted elsewhere that Russian recipients in a transnational soup kitchen community in Moscow bestow nash status on particular African and North American volunteers, even as they keep other Russians at a ne nash distance (Caldwell 1 999 ). Yet, for the purpose of the larger nationalist movement that is currently gaining power in Russia, the strategic use of nash classifiers imbues everyday practices with a heightened sense of membership in a finite and unique population. The importance of collective responsibility to this community has emerged clearly in the efforts of the Rusethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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sian government to make citizens pay their taxes.18 In 1 999 , the federal tax authorities sponsored throughout Moscow large billboards that read No one helps Russia like we ourselves (Nikto ne pomozhet Rossii krome nas samikh). Within the last five y ears, domestic food producers have increasingly appealed to consumers sense of belonging to this imagined Russian collectivity by embracing the nash and ne nash distinction in their marketing strategies, a practice that is comparable to what has been observed in East Germany (Berdahl 1 999 a; Merkel 1 994 ). One strategy has been to advertise that foods have been locally grown and produced. Some companies promote their products with labels or stickers that specifically designate that their foods are nash, or Russian. Jaffe juice is representative of many domestic products in that the labeling on its wrappers includes the phrase Made in Russia (Sdelano v Rossii) and the products official Russian certification number. Store clerks creatively arrange food displays that highlight domestic products and identify them with captions such as Nash or Russian. Often these display s occupy a special, conspicuous place on shelves, while foreign goods are jumbled together and relegated to less visible spaces. More subtle, regional distinctions are further designated with labels that identify the city or area in which a particular item was produced. One cheese display contained four different types of Russian cheese, one from Moscow, one from Novgorod, one from Kostroma, and one from Yaroslavl. Each was identified by its city of origin, and the clerk explained that the prices assigned to each product reflected the different reputations and market values associated w ith each location. In a more aggressive ploy to reassure customers about the roots of its products, one company has even licensed the brand name Nash to use on its products. For their part, Russian customers invoke the Nash/ Ne nash distinction when buy ing food. As part of a tradition of collective shopping practices, customers routinely confer with vendors and sometimes other shoppers, friends, and acquaintances to discuss the merits of a particular product. More importantly , however, they ask whether or not products are Nash or Ne nash. Muscovites explain that nash products are superior to foreign goods in terms of taste, quality, and healthfulness. Elena Viktorovna, an English professor in Moscow, reports that the first question she poses to food vendors at the market is w hether the products are nash or ne nash. Elena Viktorovona claims that she buys only nash foods because she knows that they have been packaged very shortly before and have not been lying in shipping containers and on store shelves for months or even y ears as American and other imported goods are often rumored to be. If a vendor say s that a good is ne nash,
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This billboard promoting the Otechestvo Political Party reads: By buying domestic products, you help yourself. Photo: Melissa L. Caldwell.

Elena Viktorovna remarked, I just say thank y ou and walk on. Meanw hile, sellers encourage undecided customers simply by announcing that a particular food is nash. On a rare occasion when a salesclerk advised me to buy a foreign product, she apologetically noted that the item was ne nash but of a better quality than its domestic counterpart. Some shoppers extend this Nash/ Ne nash dichotomy by evaluating foods according to the national origins of the vendors themselves. A perspective that I encountered frequently in Moscow was that foreigners, particularly dark-skinned people from Central Asia and Africa, were responsible for Russias economic problems and acts of violence. Outsiders were therefore seen as suspicious and untrustworthy. When guiding me on how to shop for food in the market, friends advised me to avoid the stalls run by merchants from Central Asia and instead recommended that I find Russian vendors. For potentially dangerous (i.e., poisonous) items such as berries or mushrooms handpicked from the forests, several friends further advised me that elderly Russian women were the most reliable sellers. More importantly, shoppers maintain that nash foods are healthier than imported products. Many Muscovites share the opinion that foreign products are artificial and contain harmful preservatives and additives, a percepethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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tion that Nelson Hancock encountered when his informants in Siberia discussed American hot dogs and chicken products (Hancock 1 998 ). In contrast, domestically grown foods, and those procured from personal agriculture or windowsill gardens, are valued for their perceived purity and naturalness. One Muscovite expressed an opinion that I heard frequently when she argued that Russian-grown produce was healthier than imported products because it contained nutrients directly from the Russian soil. Oksana, a middle -aged mother and avid gardener, commented that local produce was clean (chistii ), and therefore did not need to be washed after it was picked. She continued that it w as beneficial for children to have access to fresh produce that they could eat directly from the ground. This made them stronger, Oksana concluded. McDonalds and other restaurants in Moscow have responded to this local bias toward home -grown foods: wait staff describe to customers which ingredients have been grown nearby and in some cases the process by which the foods have been harvested and processed. McDonalds advertises widely that it buy s much of its produce from a Russian firm named Belaya Dacha, or White Dacha [summer cottage], a specific reference to the importance of cottages and summer gardens in Russian daily life. Ironically , this preference for Nash foods periodically leads to shortages, a phenomenon reminiscent of Soviet times and decidedly at odds with a capitalist-oriented marketplace. Oksana commented that it was more expensive for Russian factories to operate today because they w ere required to pay for water and electricity, unlike during Soviet times when the government provided those services. Thus, she continued, Russian factories can not produce as much as Western ones, and customers may not be able to buy nash foods when they want them and so must w ait. Oksana further reported that Muscovites w ere again standing in long queues to buy Russian-made foods. She noted that at her local market, those stalls that offered Russian products often had longer lines than those that sold foreign goods. This privileging of domestic foods has emerged in Russian politics as well. In summer 1 999, two different political parties appealed to voters by capitalizing on food themes. One party called itself the Yabloko, or Apple, Party, and espoused liberal economic and political reforms.19 Meanwhile, the Fatherland (Otechestvo; this term has two additional, related meanings of domestic and home industry) political party appealed to voters with billboards that display ed such pictures as a woman feeding her chickens, people eating, and employ ees working in a meat-packing plant. Each image included a recommendation to voters to buy domestic or to support the domestic inethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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dustry.20 By manipulating visual and rhetorical associations among food, patriotism, and national history, the candidates poignantly asked voters to link their personal food experiences with political issues that affected all Russians. In summer 2001 , a poster on the side of a bus stop shelter supported the larger movement to support the domestic economy with the caption: Lets support Russian manufacturing! Buy domestic [otechestvennoe]! Help Russia! In turn, Muscovites often use food references to display their support of or displeasure with national events. Through references to food, people comment on shifts in government policies and the differences among leaders: comparisons of the prices of foods such as bread, sausage, and cheese at various moments in Russias political history index public opinion and satisfaction. Nationalism and the Responsible Citizen in Todays Moscow Food consumption offers a powerful venue for Muscovites to navigate the political, economic, and social changes that have occurred in Russia during the 1 990s. Through selective food choices, shoppers react concretely and decisively to the revolutions that have swept both local markets and the national financial market. Moreover, they are actively invested in Russias affairs be cause their choices influence the economic sy stem at the same time that they transform the anony mity and impersonal feature of national affairs into personally meaningful events. By linking their individual food experiences with broader political and economic concerns, Muscovites articulate prac tical ideologies of national loy alty that affirm their membership and participation in a more singular, homogeneous Russian experience. In the face of growing income disparities and class stratification, each conscientious consumer of nash foods remains a committed member of the nash collectivity of Russians. This connection of the personal w ith an imagined collective nation of likeminded consumers is particularly significant for older Muscovites who are concerned that the combination of foreign convenience foods, restaurant meals, and the images of American social life portray ed on television will entice Russian children to become more A merican and lose touch with their Russian identity and heritage. Many people asked me if it was true that American women did not know how to cook, a perception that has been reinforced not only by the prevalence of American convenience foods in Russian stores, but also by American television programs and movies that depict take-away boxes as staples of American cuisine. Several mothers expressed their fears that their daughters would lose their ability to cook and their appreciation for Russian dishes as well as their potential to be good wives
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and mothers. Tatyana, a retiree w hose adult son continues to live at home, remarked that children w ho aspired to become too A merican in their tastes and desires would find themselves unsatisfied in Russia and worse still, perhaps even unemploy ed. Taty anas comment highlighted a source of tension for many Muscovites that foreign foods and practices will eventually fragment the collective identity, the narod (folk), of Russians. This concern has become more evident in the last several y ears. During my research in 1 995 , although Muscovite acquaintances made pointed remarks about the extraordinary lifesty les and financial resources of New Russians, they maintained that these individuals were nonetheless indisputably Russian. As one woman explained: They are still Russians. By the late 1 990s, this impression had shifted significantly , and New Russians were more closely associated with a group of outsiders who had turned their backs on their fellow Russians. In popular discourse they were associated with recent corruption scandals and blamed for funneling resources aw ay from the collective of the nation; this included suggestions that New Russians w ere among those most likely to evade paying their taxes. On several occasions, friends and acquaintances told me that New Russians were selfish and had distanced themselves from their social responsibilities to the Russian nation. These evaluations of appropriate Russian behavior reveal Musc ovites discomfort with the new consumer practices that have arisen with Russias shift to a capitalist-sty le economy. Individuals w ho participate in the nonRussian economy by buying foreign goods and acquiring foreign values and behaviors are perceived as having lost something intrinsically Russian namely, the ability to be both social and socially responsible. Parents lament that students who rely on instant snack foods forsake the time and conversations that w ould otherwise be spent over a meal shared with friends and relatives. Shoppers who purchase imported berries and mushrooms in gourmet supermarkets may purchase convenience and a sense of anony mity, but they also bypass the social networks and personal stories that are invested in jars of home -made preserves and pickles made by ones friends and relatives. Finally , consumers who direct their interests and funds tow ard foreign commodities and the economic sy stems in which they are enmeshed divert those resources aw ay from their own nash communities. Thus, the impersonal and disinterested nature of capitalist economic sy stems characterized by immediate transactions and regulated by anony mous market forces (Sahlins 1 97 2 ; Smith 1 981 ) is at odds with a socialized sy stem
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of consumption that works precisely because of the personal connections and sentiments that flow through it. Muscovites can trust Russian foods be cause they are familiar and reassuring. More importantly , Russian foods sy mbolically link Muscovite consumers with other Russians. By contrast, foreign goods are dangerous, both to the overarching politico-economic sy stem, as well as to consumers social and biological health. For Muscovites who are concerned about the disintegration of social cohesion, mutual support, and collective responsibility , the creation of a nationalist cuisine represents an opportunity to reclaim a set of standards and practices that defines them as Russians and marks their unique cultural experiences. Moreover, by exercising the ability to choose freely, consumers w ho select nash foods demonstrate that there is room w ithin capitalist individualism to express unify ing and meaningful relationships with each other.
Acknowledgments An earlier version of this article was presented in the panel Consumers Exiting Socialism: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Reconfiguration of Post-Soviet Social Life at the American Anthropological Association Meetings in San Francisco, 1 8 November 2000. I am grateful to our discussant, Nancy Ries, the other members of the panel, and members of the audience for their questions and comments. I would also like to thank Eriberto P. Lozada, James L. Watson, and the three anonymous reviewers for Ethnos for their suggestions. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Jennifer Patico, who has carefully and cheerfully read multiple drafts and offered many helpful recommendations. Finally, I would like to thank D. Kulick and W. stberg for their generous support and suggestions for improving this article. Notes 1 . In survey s and interviews that I conducted in Moscow (1 997 2 001 ), informants acknowledged that much of the fresh produce available in stores and markets was imported from outside Russia (generally from Central Asia, northern Africa, and Asia). Muscovites did not identify the exact geographical origins of such products, however, but described them simply as being exotic (ekzoticheskie). All translations in this article are mine. 2. For an analogous description of Russian book covers, see Condee and Padunov 1 995 :1 5 8. 3 . This fieldwork was conducted over the following periods: JuneJuly 1 995 ; November 1 997 October 1 998; MayJuly 1 999; JuneJuly 2 000; JuneJuly 2 001 . I am grateful to the U.S. Department of Education, Mellon Foundation, and the Abby and George ONeill Traveling Fund, Kathry n W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian Studies, and Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, for funding support. 4. For the analogous case of China, Maris Gillette has noted that consumers were clients of the state because their consumption possibilities were structured by the state (2000:91 ). ethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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5 . Other observers have remarked on this ubiquitous homogeneity in Soviet life (e.g., see Boy m 1 994, Humphrey 1 995 ), and it is the basis of the movie Ironiia Sudby (The Irony of Fate), in which the main characters various troubles result from the fact that he is mistakenly living in an apartment that is identical to his apartment in every way, down to the address, except that it is in a different city. In another example, during my fieldwork in 1 998, this consumer homogeneity was evident in the widespread availability of a black, white, and red plaid flannel shirt; throughout Moscow, I repeatedly encountered men and women alike wearing identical shirts. 6. Daphne Berdahl reports (1 999b) that in East Germany, homogeneity was often the consequence of shortage. It was the scarcity of a particular item that increased its worth and desirability. 7 . See Ledeneva 1 998 for a detailed discussion of blat, an exchange relationship of access, in the Soviet period; see Caldwell 1 999, Pesmen 2000, and Jennifer Paticos article in this issue for discussions of exchange relations in postsocialist Russia. See Yan 1 996, Yang 1 989, and Smart 1 993 for comparable discussions of exchange relations in China. 8. These practices are more fully elaborated in Caldwell 1 999. 9. For additional information on Russias rich culinary history , see the collection of articles in Glants and Toomre 1 997 . 1 0. See also McDonalds Canada President George Cohons account (1 997 ) of these negotiations. 1 1 . This antagonism toward a different economic ideology was not unique to the Soviet Union. When efforts by the Coca-Cola corporation after World War II to build bottling plants in the Soviet Union were turned down, company officials interpreted this failure as evidence that Soviet authorities feared the political ideology associated with the soft drink enterprise. At their international convention, Coke representatives hung up a placard that read When we think of Communists, we think of the Iron Curtain But when they think of democracy, they think of Coca-Cola (Pendergrast 1 993 :23 8). 1 2. See Jennifer Paticos discussion (2001 ) about the appeal of geographic origins for consumer goods. Compare with Goldfrank 1 994 for a description of the strategic marketing of geographic origins for Chilean produce sales in the u.s.a. 1 3 . Katherine Verdery (1 996) has described such constraints as means by which the socialist state confiscated and manipulated the personal time of its citizens. 1 4. Price is not always a reliable indicator for predicting Muscovites purchasing practices. On the one hand, many consumers cite personal income limitations as motivations for buying Russian foods. For instance, in Moscow a loaf of bread from a Russian bakery averages 5 rubles, while a loaf of French bread from a foreign bakery may cost 203 0 rubles; a liter of milk from a Russian dairy costs 1 1 rubles, while a liter of milk imported from a Finnish dairy costs 1 4 rubles; and a tub of Russian-made ice cream may cost 20 rubles, while its American equivalent exceeds 1 5 0 rubles. These issues became even more important after the August 1 998 financial crisis, when many people lost their jobs and savings, and the value of the ruble fell. During that period, the prices of domestic goods remained low and more affordable than those of foreign and imported products, which were affected by inflation and temporary shortages. On the other hand, domestic ethnos , vol. 67 :3 , 2 002 (pp. 2 95 3 1 9)

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15. 1 6. 17. 1 8. 1 9. 20.

production does not alway s guarantee lower prices. High-quality Russian vodkas and chocolates are typically priced comparably to their foreign competitors. Meanwhile, videotapes of Russian movies and compact disks of Russian musical groups ty pically cost tw o to three times more than those of foreign artists a fact that informants claim is justified because of the greater artistic quality and merit of domestic productions. See Pesmen 2000 for an extended discussion about Russian notions of dusha. E.g., Berdahl 1 999a; see also Gediminas Lankauskass article in this issue. Catriona Kelly has called this post-Soviet retro chic (1 998:22 9). Cf. Boy ms claim (1 999:3 8 4): Appeals to collective responsibility have become much less popular than they were during glasnost, and, more important, much less marketable. I would like to thank one anonymous reviewer for pointing out that the name of the Yabloko party is also an acrony m formed from the first letters of the party s founders: Grigorii Yavlinskii, Yurii Boldyrev, and Vladimir Lukin. Theresa Sabonis-Chafee describes a similar tactic that was employed during the 1 996 presidential campaign in Russia. A series of pro-Yeltsin posters depicted every day Russian life before and after: the before picture portray ed empty shelves in a grocery store, while the after images presented a family laden with bags of food products (Sabonis-Chafee 1 999:3 7 2).

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