Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the question of identity is central to our study of consumer culture in today's Russia. It explores the ways in which the relationship between shopping and consumers' subjectivity may actually be articulated in contemporary Russia is one of the main themes. The book analyses the nature of the quite specific consumer culture that has emerged in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. It presents the development of retailing in Russia between the late Imperial era and the end of the Soviet period. This enables us first and foremost to place post-Soviet retailing in a historical context. Such contextualisation is crucial to our argument, since it enables us to show the different ways in which retailing has been re-enchanted' since the end of the USSR.