Not by Bread Alone

Melissa L. Caldwell's study looks at a soup kitchen run by the Christian Church of Moscow and argues that its meals offer more than relief from hunger. The book is presented as the first full-length ethnography of poverty and social welfare in the postsocialist world. Through close observation of the kitchens' daily routines and exchanges, it examines what social assistance looks like in Russia today.

The community that forms around the kitchen is international. Elderly Muscovite recipients, Russian aid workers, African student volunteers, and donors and helpers from North America and Europe all take part. Caldwell describes the improvised strategies residents use to meet their material needs and shows how the bonds among these participants provide support that people value even more than the food and goods. The kitchens become places of stability and refuge for everyone who comes through, not only those with little money. Residents define hunger and poverty by the reach of their social contacts more than by material circumstances.

Rethinking how social and economic life are theorized, Caldwell treats social relations and status as Russia's real economic currency. The book questions common assumptions about the role of the state, the nature of poverty and welfare, the prospects for Western-style reform, and the central place of personal connections in ordinary lives after the Soviet Union.