Одежда сельского населения Кубани и продукция массового пошива в 1920–1930 гг.: динамика потребительского спроса

Clothing of Rural Population of Kuban and Mass-Produced Goods in the 1920s–1930s: Dynamics of Consumer Demand

The paper examines the persistence and transformation of traditional and urbanized clothing forms among the rural population of Kuban during the 1920s–1930s in order to reveal the dynamics of consumer demand within the peasant/urban dichotomy. The materials used comprised documents from the holdings of the State Archive of Krasnodar Krai, newspaper periodicals, museum photographic materials, and documentary films. Methodologically, the study relies on a combination of comparative, historical-genetic, and reconstructive methods, which enables the author to link scattered archival data on production and consumption into an integrated model. By collating accounting documents from rural ready-to-wear stores with ethnographic descriptions and photographic evidence, the study reconstructs the economic chain “production – distribution – consumption” and traces the adaptation of peasant demand to factory-made goods. It has been established that factory‑made clothing was distributed in a number of rural settlements of the Kuban and Don okrugs of the North Caucasus Krai through a network of ready‑to‑wear stores operated by the regional branches of the State Universal Store (GUM) and the joint‑stock company Textiltorg. These outlets also functioned as control and assortment points, and they recorded the transfer of mass‑produced garments into the peasant milieu. The study reveals that demand for urban‑style clothing among the rural population of the region—predominantly male—was negligible during this period: consumers exhibited a clear preference for traditional forms. The sole exception was fashionable women's ready‑made garments produced by the republican trust Moskvoshei, which enjoyed considerable popularity. At the same time, consumers favoured inexpensive wadded men's and women's coats and three‑quarter coats, quilted jackets, wide trousers, and peasant‑style undergarments, with their choices guided primarily by durability, quality, and price. A brief renaissance of the Cossack costume is noted during the NEP period. A set of factors influencing the dynamics of consumer demand is identified, including natural‑climatic, socio‑economic, and cultural variables. When selecting clothing, consumers prioritised quality and practicality, while fashionability remained a secondary consideration. The author concludes that within the contradictory and complex process of structural adaptation of the Kuban rural population to urban‑type clothing, a catalysing role was played by collectivisation, dekulakisation, and the economic‑political campaigns of 1929–1930, which exerted an ambivalent (both regressive and progressive) impact on the dynamics of consumer demand.