Uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why Russian nostalgia for empire could lead to repeating past strategies that result in instability, leaving Russia vulnerable to economic downturns - Provided by publisher

Russia's retail landscape, 1860s-1890s -- Palaces of retailing and consumption -- For God, tsar, and consumerism -- Visions of modernity: gender and the retail marketplace, 1905-1914 -- Consuming the city: the culture of the retail marketplace -- War and revolution in the marketplace, 1914-1921...