1. 'To catch up and overtake' the West : Soviet discourse on socialist competition / Jutta Scherrer -- 2. Optimal planning, optimal economy, optimal life? The Kosygin reforms, 1965-72 / Aappo Kähönen -- 3. More efficiency via democracy : debates over reforming the GDR / Dieter Segert -- 4. The...

Isolation -- Depression Stalinism -- Postwar: the Bretton Woods Cold War -- Aspiration -- Restoration: resuming the relationship with capitalism -- Maelstrom: the decolonization vortex -- Integration -- Conformity and profit: the Soviet economy under American hegemony -- Poor relations: the...

Between failure and success: the economics and politics of consumption under Brezhnev -- Redefining the norms of socialist consumption -- Shopping as a way of life: the experiences and values of Soviet consumers -- Structures of consumption: class and generation -- From "modest" to "modish": new...