“Russians’ Favorite Pastime Is Standing in Line”: Frank Whitson Fetter about Trade and Food Situation in Kazan (1930)

The article examines trade and food situation in Kazan during the first five-year plan based on the analysis of written and visual sources created by American economist Frank Whitson Fetter (1899–1991) during his six-week visit in 1930. As a professional economist, Fetter used a wide variety of tools to study the economic situation in the Soviet Union: participant observation, interviews, photography, and filming. He visited Kazan cooperatives and markets daily and recorded field data in his notebooks. Based on them, Fetter made detailed records in his journal. Currently, a significant part of the collected materials, including more than 300 photographs, is kept at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University (USA). Particular attention in Fetter’s materials is paid to the Kazan trade situation (the behavior of sellers and buyers, queues, range of goods, price dynamics, interruptions in government supply, sanitary condition of private markets and establishments of the state cooperative trading network) and consumers’ status (their salaries, rationing system, food, availability and quality of clothing and footwear). Fetter witnessed the growing shortage of goods and the growing discontent of Kazan citizens during a radical change in the economic system of the USSR. The article reveals his view of the situation and provides photographs taken by him.

Etkind, A.M. Tolkovanie puteshestvii: Rossiya i Amerika v travelogakh i intertekstakh [Interpretation of travels: Russia and America in travelogues and intertexts]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2022. (In Russian)
Filene, P.G. Americans and the Soviet experiment, 1917–1933. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Hoover, C.B. The Economic Life of Soviet Russia. New York: The Macmillan company,1931.
Kurilla, I.I. Zaklyatye druz'ya. Istoriya mnenii, fantazii, kontaktov, vzaimo(ne)ponimaniya Rossii i SShA [A love-hate relationship: History of opinions, fantasies, contacts, mutual (mis)understanding between Russia and the USA]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2018. (In Russian)
Lapina, G.V. Amerikantsy v Moskve: 1930–1940 [Americans in Moscow: 1930–1940]. Moscow: Litfakt, 2022. (In Russian)
Malysheva, S.Yu. “Trista grammov khleba i vatnik po orderu: kartochnaya sistema v Kazani” [Three hundred grams of bread and a cotton wadded jacket by order: card system in Kazan]. Special issue, Rodina, no. 8 (2005): 130–33. (In Russian)
Mickenberg, J.L. Amerikanki v Krasnoi Rossii: V pogone za sovetskoi mechtoi [American girls in Red Russia: Chasing the Soviet dream], translated from English by T. Azarkovich. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2023. (in Russian)
Osokina, E.A. Za fasadom “stalinskogo izobiliya”: Raspredelenie i rynok v snabzhenii naseleniya v gody industrializatsii. 1927–1941 [Behind the façade of ‘Stalin’s abundance’: Distribution and the market in the supply of the population during the years of industrialization. 1927–1941]. Moscow: Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya (ROSSPEN); Fond pervogo prezidenta Rossii B.N. El'tsina, 2008. (In Russian)
Shpotov, B.M. Amerikanskii biznes i Sovetskii Soyuz v 1920–1930-e gody: Labirinty ekonomicheskogo sotrudnichestva [American business and the Soviet Union in the 1920s–1930s: Labyrinths of economic cooperation]. Moscow: Librokom, 2012. (In Russian)
Tikhii, K.T. Amerikantsy o strane Sovetov 1921–1933 gg. [Americans about the Soviet Union, 1921–1933]. Vladivostok: Dal'nauka, 2000. (In Russian)