ABSTRACT

How was the Soviet Union like a soup kitchen? In this important and highly revisionist work, historian Sheila Fitzpatrick explains that a reimagining of the Communist state as a provider of goods for the ‘deserving poor’ can be seen as a powerful metaphor for understanding Soviet life as a whole. By positioning the state both as a provider and as a relief agency, Fitzpatrick establishes it as not so much a prison (the metaphor favoured by many of her predecessors), but more the agency that made possible a way of life.

Fitzpatrick’s real claim to originality, however, is to look at the relationship between the all-powerful totalitarian government and its own people from both sides – and to demonstrate that the Soviet people were not totally devoid of either agency or resources. Rather, they successfully developed practices that helped them to navigate everyday life at a time of considerable danger and multiple shortages. For many, Fitzpatrick shows, becoming an informer and reporting fellow citizens – even family and friends – to the state was a successful survival strategy.

Fitzpatrick's work is noted mainly as an example of the critical thinking skill of reasoning; she marshals evidence and arguments to deliver a highly persuasive revisionist description of everyday life in Soviet time. However, her book has been criticized for the way in which it deals with possible counter-arguments, not least the charge that many of the interviewees on whose experiences she bases much of her analysis were not typical products of the Soviet system.

chapter |6 pages

Ways in to The Text

section 1|18 pages

Influences

chapter |5 pages

Module 2 Academic Context

chapter |4 pages

Module 3 The Problem

chapter |4 pages

Module 4 The Author’s Contribution

section 2|19 pages

Ideas

chapter |5 pages

Module 5 Main Ideas

chapter |5 pages

Module 6 Secondary Ideas

chapter |4 pages

Module 7 Achievement

chapter |4 pages

Module 8 Place in the Author’s Work

section 3|18 pages

Impact

chapter |4 pages

Module 9 The First Responses

chapter |5 pages

Module 10 The Evolving Debate

chapter |4 pages

Module 11 Impact and Influence Today

chapter |4 pages

Module 12 Where Next?