QUEUETOPIA: SECOND-WORLD MODERNITY AND THE SOVIET CULTURE OF ALLOCATION

by Laura Goodrich

When I explain to people that I research the culture of queuing, it almost always elicits an immediate response that includes anecdotes of personal experiences, jokes, and cultural stereotypes of how a particular group waits. Queuing and waiting are common modern experiences, regardless of place, economic system, and time period. For Americans, their awareness of queuing in the Soviet Union was often related through numerous travelers’ accounts of poor material conditions of everyday life and through the numerous jokes told by American politicians such as Ronald Reagan. Winston Churchill coined the term “Queuetopia” in 1950 to warn against the threat of socialism both in Great Britain and in Eastern “Why should queues become a permanent, continuous feature of our life? Here you see clearly what is in their minds

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2025