Communist Quality: Dairy Production at the Leningrad Dairy Combine, 1965-1982

Throughout the twentieth century, particularly post-WWII, dairy became a staple part of the “modern” diet throughout many parts of the globe due to new technologies in pasteurization and production. Dairy’s significance was felt in the Soviet Union as well, which used food to improve the standard of living and open another avenue of competition with the West. This study makes two main arguments: Soviet dairy and its ideas of quality were modern in their belief in scientific controls and implementation of new technologies but were distinctly Soviet in that state and scientific actors were the ones to define what was quality in dairy production. While consumer concerns were embraced, they were to be rationalized and filtered through the rational actors in the ministries and enterprises. Using quality reports from the Leningrad Dairy Combine and the Soviet Ministry of Meat and Milk Production, along with articles from professional journals from 1965–1982, this study highlights how Soviet officials had to contend with the Brezhnev era’s focus on consumer abundance while ensuring it remained rational. To reconcile these factors, the Soviet Union sought examples of quality dairy products from foreign countries both in the socialist and capitalist blocs while the Leningrad Dairy Combine tried to address subjective factors of quality like color in “tasting commissions” and address the causes of complaints from the ministry and local shops. However, Soviet consumers were never involved in these processes, setting Soviet dairy, and by extension, Soviet modernity apart from other dairy-rich societies in the West.