Manger dans les cantines staliniennes : « Consommateurs » soviétiques à l’époque des premiers plans quinquennaux

Abstract

Eating in Stalin’s Canteens : the Development of Collective Catering During the First Five-year Plans. eating at work became an everyday practice for Soviet citizens and a necessity as hunger was one of the direst consequences of the new policy. Far from fitting the original project of modernization, these canteens were unpleasant places, where the workers lived negative sensorial experiences caused by the repulsive smell and taste of the food, or the deafening noise. both the composition of the meals and the taste of food were very monotonous. If not totally absent, criticism and displays of discontent were far less numerous than could be expected, as other sources of food were almost nonexistent. Canteens were a place of confrontation between the official discourse and reality, one of the places showing the failure of the Stalinist project, but it was also a place where the Soviet man was built.