Greg Castillo’s article examines how the United States used displays of lavish and modern consumerism, as an effective tool in the fight against communism. The thesis of the article is that the desire for consumer goods is, at least, partially responsible for causing unrest in the Eastern Bloc and exposed how different the Soviet’s communist tenets were from what humans’ desire. In the introduction of Greg’s article, he speaks of a fictitious account published in 1951 by sociologist David Reisman’s. In this account Reisman tells of how ‘Operation Abundance’ is being waged against the Soviet Union. Instead of using guns and bombs to accomplish their goals, the US was air-dropping appliances, clothing, and other luxury goods to the Russian people.
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In 1953, unrest caused by consumer austerity measures had created rebellions in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, which were only able to be stopped after using military force. The 1956 revolution in Hungary resulted in a partial market system allowing for increases in private consumerism. In 1957, Poland was able to introduce a similar system after an outbreak of a number of protests. In 1959, Soviet Premiere Khrushchev was publically humiliated at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, by a display showing the state of American households, and how inadequate the Russian household was becoming. Following the embarrassing event the Soviets created the Seven-Year Plan, pledging to match the US’s housing and consumer goods output. According to Castillo, it proved to be somewhat successful as “During the 1960’s, most East Bloc governments were able to supply the minimum requirements of a fledgling consumer society: one small apartment per nuclear family, a selection of basic foods and a fairly dependable supply of essential household products.” (286) It appears that the soviets were fighting an uphill battle. The more they tried to provide their citizenry with the goods they desired, most of which were commonplace to the western world, the more evident it was that their economy was unsuited to do so. Their system had been created to provide the basics
In 1953, unrest caused by consumer austerity measures had created rebellions in Czechoslovakia and East Germany, which were only able to be stopped after using military force. The 1956 revolution in Hungary resulted in a partial market system allowing for increases in private consumerism. In 1957, Poland was able to introduce a similar system after an outbreak of a number of protests. In 1959, Soviet Premiere Khrushchev was publically humiliated at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, by a display showing the state of American households, and how inadequate the Russian household was becoming. Following the embarrassing event the Soviets created the Seven-Year Plan, pledging to match the US’s housing and consumer goods output. According to Castillo, it proved to be somewhat successful as “During the 1960’s, most East Bloc governments were able to supply the minimum requirements of a fledgling consumer society: one small apartment per nuclear family, a selection of basic foods and a fairly dependable supply of essential household products.” (286) It appears that the soviets were fighting an uphill battle. The more they tried to provide their citizenry with the goods they desired, most of which were commonplace to the western world, the more evident it was that their economy was unsuited to do so. Their system had been created to provide the basics