Abstract

The collapse of communist rule in Russia at the beginning of the 1990s revived a whole series of social, cultural, and ideological phenomena that had either lain dormant or been almost entirely absent during the Soviet period, phenomena ranging from pornography and prostitution to religion and real estate. Vegetarianism, which had been demonized under Stalin as a pernicious and insidiously "anti-scientific" doctrine promulgated by the ideologues of the exploitative classes in the capitalist West, experienced a revival that began during the glasnost' years; it has continued to remain popular in post communist Russia as well. The Vegetarian Society of the USSR, which was created in the late 1980s under Gorbachev, helped to bring together-and, more importantly, to bring out of the proverbial closet-Russian vegetarians of various hues, organizing health groups in different cities across the former Soviet Union.

Department

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Publication Date

5-2001

Journal Title

Carl Beck Papers in Russian & East European Studies

Publisher

Slavica Publishers, inc.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.5195/cbp.2001.117

Document Type

Book

Rights

© 2001 by The Center for Russian and East European Studies, a program of the University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh.

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