Stephen Bittner explores this ocean of wine across currents of imperialism, European idealization, native viniculture traditions, and the Revolution. The result is a finely balanced, enjoyable examination of wine production and connoisseurship in Russia and the Soviet Union ... Overall, this is a sophisticated, yet accessible, analysis of Russian and Soviet identity as filtered through wine. Bittner is quick to provide further references for the theoretical and historiographic context, which will make this appealing to students and helpful to researchers.
Stephen V. Bittner is Professor of History at Sonoma State University. He is the author of The Many Lives of Khrushchev's Thaw: Experience and Memory in Moscow's Arbat and the editor of Dmitrii Shepilov's memoir, The Kremlin's Scholar: A Memoir of Soviet Politics under Stalin and Khrushchev.