Paper short abstract:

This paper studies the Bolshevik decision to introduce “socialized canteens” in industrial centers during the Russian Revolution. It interprets this decision using a framework derived from utopian thought on communal or socialized dining, and shows how the utopian became pragmatic.

Paper long abstract:

Food uncertainty was on the menu throughout the history of the USSR. The question whether enough tasty and healthy food could be produced and distributed by a socialist state—the so-called food question (prodovol’stvennyi vopros)—was discussed continuously by politicians, specialists, journalists and citizens. When Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power through a coup in November 1917, the context of food crisis was part of the crucible that shaped the institutions they introduced. Not accidentally, one of the early, oft-quoted Leninist slogans was: “The Fight for Bread is the Fight for Socialism!”

My paper studies one of the answers that the Bolsheviks gave to the food question on the third day of their revolution. They proposed to feed the hungry populations of industrial centers like Moscow and Petrograd in “socialized canteens [obshchestvennye stolovye].” Historians have approached this policy decision either as an essentially utopian project or as an emergency method in the face of critical food uncertainty. I argue for a middle way that appreciates utopian thought as a critique of eating practices that rely on the individual household—in contrast to communal or socialized dining hall. This utopian critique provides a framework that allows us to discern a different manifestations of food uncertainty that were at play during the Russian Revolution. As such, we can understand the socialized canteen as an institution in which utopia became pragmatic.

In writing my paper—definitely a work in progress—I rely on utopian literature, Bolshevik policy documents, statistics, publications on socialized dining, and memoirs.