What is Russian… why, by the way what is Hungarian?

The "socialist automobile" meant many things: a serious piece of wealth, a status symbol and also represented the turn of the "really existing socialism" towards consumerism. The author let us a glimpse into the special culture that was built around the socialist automobile: what communities were formed by searching maintenance, car parts and often also petrol. What kind of inequalities developed by having or not having a car, how it affected socialist moral, and how successful was the sOriginal publication: Lewis H. Siegelbaum: "Car Culture in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1980s" Technology and Culture, Volume 50. Number 1, January 2004.

By comparing patterns and structures of Soviet and US car production and consumption the author concludes that the "development of catching-up" in the 1970s and 1980s produced more human life conditions in the Soviet Union than the present ones in Russia despite that driving now has a far more better technical and technological level.

The author is examining how the Czech car industry tried to mix the Soviet and US models, and what were the chances and limitations of this hybrid solution in Czechoslovakia. This article can be praised, because it goes beyond the mainstream narrative in East-Europe that often unable to separate subjective judgement from scientific examination.

The original article Valentina faca: Taylorismo e Socialismo. Il caso della produzione automobilistica della Škoda (1945-1963) Annali di Storia dell'impresa 15-16, 2004-2005